“The other day, I was sitting in the office and one of our family members was wheeled past the door by a carer. When she saw me she cried out so I went to her. She told me, ‘I’m so fed up. I want to go home. I have no purpose.’

“I talked to her and said, ‘Let me tell you what your purpose may be. Jesus loves you unconditionally and maybe you are here so we can love you unconditionally. It might not be about you, it might be about us learning to love you in that way.’ After that, we prayed together.

“The next day, I spent time with her and she was so happy and I thought, ‘that landed, that’s good’. She’s 98, she’s in a wheelchair. You go ‘what is this for?’ but God always has a purpose. Every person is here for a reason.

“Music and hymns are so powerful. I saw this with my own mum, who had dementia. For the last four months of her life, she didn’t speak and then one day my sister came to see her and they sang together. At the mention of Jesus, she was just there in worship to Him. It’s just such an encouragement that this thing – dementia – does not rob you of your faith.

“I’ve seen how singing can soothe those experiencing the agitation that can come with dementia. I think of one lady in particular who, if I sang, would become calm and start to sing along. By the end of her life, her speech was going, but she could still sing word perfectly.

“One of the privileges of my role is being with our family members who are very near to the end of their life. A couple of months ago, a very dear lady was nearing the end. I’d printed off the words ‘It is well with my soul’ and we sang this over her. It was lovely to see how, in her final hours, this hymn brought absolute comfort to her.”