04/01/2026
You see an elderly woman in a taxi at 1.50am, having totted up an £80 fare 🚖 The taxi driver looks confused. Something doesn’t feel right 🤔 We’d like to thank one man who called us in the early hours of the morning on Monday, because this was his reality.
On assessing the situation the man told our call handler that he was trying to get the elderly woman home safely, who was insisting she lived on a certain road in Cambridge. The woman also struggled to remember how old she was.
Further enquiries while we stayed on the phone revealed the elderly woman in fact lived in Newmarket, but had lived in Cambridge earlier in life. Checks with Suffolk Constabulary Official Page highlighted that the woman’s family had reported her missing just a little while before this phone call.
Officers visited the area and took the woman home to safety in Newmarket, where she was reunited with them 🏠 🥰
The woman had a Herbert Protocol form completed with Suffolk Police, which allowed us to cross reference the Cambridge address she was giving with her details. Further safeguarding plans will now also be put in place for her.
Have you heard about the Herbert Protocol? 💡 It’s a scheme we support that can help find people with dementia if they go missing.
Family and friends are encouraged to fill out our online form that will help officers if a loved one goes missing by collating key pieces of information, such as a physical description, familiar places, health details and an up-to-date photo.
We’ve also launched yellow dementia wristbands – which store the name and contact details of a wearer’s next of kin so that if someone gets lost, members of the public can quickly access contact details and reunite them - often taking away the need to call police 👍 🚔
More than 300 people have now filled out our Herbert Protocol form online, proving invaluable in stories like this one, and registered their interest for a wristband. For more information, or to do the same, visit our dedicated web page: https://orlo.uk/Herbert-Protocol_0CJuH
