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TESSA HARDING MA, MBE​

19.08.1943 to 29.12.2024

 

It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Tessa Harding. Tessa, along with Nikki Sawkins, founded the Halesworth Dementia Carers Fund. Her biography is below.

 

Tessa grew up in Suffolk, not far from Halesworth, and was delighted to come back home nearly 24 years ago.

 

In the intervening years she was educated at the Lycée Français de Londres (1952-61), a graduate of Keele University (BA Hons 1966) and a graduate of Brunel University (MA 1977). She was a Harkness Fellow, studying the impact of the Americans with Disabilities Act on the long-term care system in the USA in 1993/4.

 

Between 1972 and 1984, she worked for three local authorities in various roles, mainly as liaison officer between the Council and the voluntary sector.

 

She then went on to join the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, leading the Community Care Project for six years and later for the National Institute for Social Work on disability issues alongside organisations of disabled people who were developing an ever-stronger voice at that time.

 

Tessa worked for Help the Aged nationally for ten years, for three years as Senior Policy Adviser with a focus on age equality and human rights, and finally as Head of Policy.

 

She was a member of the Advisory Committee for New Dynamics of Ageing and of the Attorney General’s Equality and Diversity Advisory Group, as well as advising the Crown Prosecution Service on its policy on crimes against older people.

 

Tessa was awarded an MBE in January 2004 (for services to charity, although she protested privately that it should have been 'for services to older people'), and the Alan Walker prize for her contribution to social gerontology in 2009. She proudly received the annual Outstanding Achievement Award from the British Society of Gerontology in 2009.
 

Tessa explained why she became involved with Halesworth dementia Carers’ Fund in retirement thus:

 

“Because of my own experience as a carer for my stepmother, who had vascular dementia, I desperately needed someone knowledgeable to talk to and did not know where to turn. After she died, I discovered that other carers felt much the same, so I spoke to the GPs at Cutlers Hill surgery and asked what could be done. From then on, Nikki Sawkins and I set up the Carers’ Fund, and were joined by Paddy Cox, Paddy Flegg and David Prime, and then by Dave and Jackie Rich as well. We applied for a grant so we could have a specialist dementia support worker from the Alzheimer’s Society based in Halesworth for two days a week and were very pleased to get funding from the County Council for two years.

 

So, my main motivation was personal, but it helped that I had been involved in health and social care for most of my working life. I worked for three local authorities and then three national voluntary organisations, ending up as Head of Policy for Help the Aged. So I was familiar with how things are done and how grants are applied for”.

 

When Tessa stepped down from being Secretary the trustees bestowed upon her the title of Lifetime President – which she was pleased to accept.

 

There is a somewhat tragic irony in that, prior to her death, Tessa was conducting her own battle with a twin diagnosis of Alzheimer's and Vascular Dementia and was sometimes winning. While her physical strength was failing, her mind had become sharper in her last couple of months and she had regained some powers of conversation - always her greatest strength.

 

HdCF are very proud of the part that Tessa played in the instigation of the HdCF and know that she would be very proud of what the Fund is achieving now.

 

Rest In Peace Tessa.