Creatives Create Colouring Book that Fights Dementia

Colour certainly has a way of brightening up people's lifes and it can particularly help to illuminate those suffering from dementia, as realised by Leo Burnett London creatives Hannah Cunningham and Beth Grace.

The pair have created a unique colouring book called A Colourful Life which they launched to coincide with Dementia Action Week (May 21-27).

While colouring books have gained popularity among adults - mainly hipsters - in recent years for their ability to sooth anxiety, they also have other medical benefits such as flexing the brain's memory muscle.

What makes their books so special is that each one can be personalised, using picturres collected from photo albums and transformed into colouring books.

The idea is that while colouring in, dementia sufferers will be able to rejig their memories and connect the stories behind the images.

Inspired by Cunningham's grandma Pat who passed away in 2015 from dementia, the duo initially designed and funded the project, keen to roll it out further as a way of raising awareness of the condition and seeing if it could benefit more people. Leo Burnett has since contributed to the project, compiling and sourcing dementia research to feed into it.

The books' illustrations have initially been simplified from photos of Pat as well as three other dementia sufferers - Rosie, John and Ron. Pictures of momentous occasions like birthdays and weddings are featured and heavy outlines are used to make colouring in as easy as possible.