ENTERTAINER Alison Stanley is using her lifelong love of performance to start a new business. The mother-of-two from Dudley, North Tyneside, has decided it’s now or never to go it alone, after working for more than 20 years in the civil service.
She has developed a new business based around her own memory-improving programme of performing arts, which she is taking out to older people in the community.
Health professionals recognise that working on developing the memory can prove beneficial to people at risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
With the launch of Stanna Productions, Stanley plans to take her new programme out into the community delivering interactive memory theatre.
She said: “I have always been involved in drama and theatre groups from an early age and have done extras work on TV over the years, but I used to fit it in around my full-time job.
“But there comes a time in life where you have to take your passion and turn it into something more beneficial.
I used to do amateur performances in care homes and sheltered housing and gradually started to develop these so that the audience became part of the show. This sometimes involves sing-alongs or story telling, where residents recall things from their past or else scenes from history and stories of Hollywood legends.”
Stanley first came up with her plan after seeing a competition in North Tyneside Council’s Horizons magazine, which was asking for people’s business ideas. She entered and won the Flying Sparks award which drove her on to go ahead and launch her business.
She sought the advice of The Business Factory, based on High Street West in Wallsend, which is North Tyneside Council’s one-stop-shop for budding entrepreneurs to get all the advice and support they need. Alison received help in putting together a business plan, setting up a simple accounting system but also taking the right medical advice to launch her business.
Alison approached the charity MIND Active in Bedlington, an organisation that works to build on activities available within residential homes to improve mental stimulation.
David Ireland from the Business Factory said: “Alison has taken a lifelong hobby and passion and is turning it into a really exciting business opportunity. Her drive and skill will make a real difference to hundreds of people’s lives.”
The Business Factory, which is delivered by TEDCO on behalf of North Tyneside Council, is aimed at potential entrepreneurs in the North Tyneside area and offers free advice and support.