Norms Torbay Exposed

12/09/2024

Before anyone believes that Norman McNamara was the driving force behind either Dementia Action Alliances or the creation of Dementia Friendly Communities in the UK (as he so often claims), please read this leaflet from Alzheimer's Society. It dates back to the time when McNamara was a volunteer at one of the Alz Soc's local memory cafes in Torquay, a contributor to the online forum then known as Talking Point, and when the Alzheimer's Society first invited him to attend a gathering at Downing Street. 2012 is when the (then) Prime Minister's Challenge on Dementia came about. The Alzheimer’s Society coordinated and supported local DAAs.

The Torbay Dementia Action Alliance was but one of many, set up and operating according to the the advice handed down from Alz Soc. All over the UK they sprang up, all joining the same movement for raising awareness of dementia, and creating dementia friendly communities. He used all the information leaflets supplied to him by Alzheimer's Society when he went ffrom shop to shop in Torquay, with volunteers. He even used all that information in later years, without once giving acknowledgement of/to the source.

McNamara claims credit for that but it is a complete misrepresentation of the way things were emerging in the UK at the time. If only he could tell the truth, people in the UK might have more respect for him, but as long as he continues to present a false picture of what became the purple angel, he will continue to do harm.

15/08/2024

Caring Times is publishing a load of lies again. On 25th July 2024 in the section called Norrms Blog it has published a tale of woe that begins "During the night last night, I sat up in my bed, looked down and saw my wife who was sleeping peacefully beside me, apparently unaware that the computer screen was flashing on and off. "

Any reader might believe this is a current experience for Norman McNamara. They would be wrong. It's all a con. An old one too.

That same tale of woe appeared on 3rd November 2019 on the Alzheimer's Society online forum. Word for word exactly the same old story. Back in 2019.

1. The Alzheimer's Society version from 2019.
https://forum.alzheimers.org.uk/threads/lewy-bodys-nobody-knows.118741/

2. The Caring Times version from 2024.
https://caring-times.co.uk/feature/norrms-blog-hallucinations-night-terrors-and-living-with-dementia/?fbclid=IwY2xjawEqqEZleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHYxtOlLnFR4DkfdaA4fvhkPxl7BJ4CPq2xc5XzXGkVqQl6RXd0p4RnPZeg_aem_bsddiUzssPWV7Ykntlkf2w

Nobody knows, KNOW BODY KNOWS !!! During the night last night,, i sat up in my bed, i looked down and saw my wife who was sleeping peacefully besides me, apparently unaware that the computer screen was flashing on and off. I sat upright in bed and rubbed my eyes as it flashed and flashed...

23/02/2024

Part 4 – Unpacking, for the final time (hopefully), the video sent to us of a conversation / interview recorded in October 2021, so just over 2 years ago, by Age UK Salford and its Emma Smith.

No apologies for the long explanation below - it is tcritical to understand what has been going on.

‘It’s not what he chooses to remember that’s important. It’s what he chooses to forget.’
(Words spoken by one very wise 83-year old woman with Vascular Dementia)

We return to an Ostrich, disguised by Norman McNamara as his ‘young multi-millionaire backer’ in the Video made by Age UK Salford and Emma Smith where he was talking about the GPS trackers that failed to take flight.

As for his ‘young multi-millionaire’ backer (who was just 21 at the time) – read on!

McNamara and the Ostrich group had been in touch for months. Planning and plotting their ways and means of convincing people to ‘involve and engage’ with the ostrich. (Norm’s much-loved slogan words.)

Once the Ostrich had convinced Norman McNamara not to blow its feathered plumage, he was given the go-ahead to announce that he was now in bed with a CARE COMPANY called Ostrich Care. He had been hinting at this for weeks.
NB. If anyone can find a care company called Ostrich Care – past or present – we would be more than interested. (Providing care to humans – not birds.)

So excited was he that he said “.. here is the news i have been waiting so long to give you ...”.

He then shared a very long post about FREE GPS trackers being made available to all with a diagnosis of dementia and prone to wandering, and to ‘registered carers’ too. Except that he didn’t tell people that his long post had been written for him, by an ostrich, giving details of their monthly monitoring cost to punters, and with additional info about this FREE tracker being available from a care company called Ostrich UK and its call centre. All FREE .... for the first 3 months; then full normal charges would apply.

‘After many weeks of discussions and negotiations with Ostrich Care UK it is with IMMENSE PRIDE that I can now say : thanks to all at Ostrich Care’ said Norman McNamara.
NB. If anyone can find a care company called Ostrich Care UK – past or present – we would be interested to hear more. (Providing care to humans – not birds.)

During that period of enforced silence from McNamara, the ostrich’s website changed its tabs to include the word ‘care’. Prior to that, it had just been fairly bald in that regard, because, of course, it was just an affiliate marketing website, funded by putting punters in touch with companies who might be able to put punters in touch with other companies who might be able to provide chargeable services to the punter. The ostrich would have received its fee – even though the punter may never have bought as much as a sausage.

Its original website had links to funeral directors, Will writing companies, estate agents. Just the kind of services most people with dementia, especially those in need of GPS trackers because they are prone to wandering, are not exactly trying to track down. Definitely not a care providing kind of company.

But it did have on its spine board an Actor, a Plumber/Gas Engineer, a Receptionist, a ‘real estate agency person’ specialising in buying homes in Florida (!), with the young (alleged) ‘multi-millionaire’ describing himself as an Actor. I kid you not!!

Suddenly, almost overnight plus a very long weekend, Ostrich Money, Ostrich Law, Ostrich Insurance, Ostrich Care, Ostrich Property, Ostrich Carers, Ostrich Shop, and Ostrich Leisure were all hatched as tabs on the old website. Not companies; just tabs on the affiliate marketing website. Amazon also featured.

McNamara became even keener on giving out the impression that there really was an ostrich that cared about people with dementia. But it seems it was all purely and simply a hook; a money-making hook, designed to catch vulnerable people with dementia and their relatives. Fishing, anyone?

The previously-named funeral directors, Will-writing companies and estate agents immediately vanished from the revamped Ostrich website.

So involved and manipulative was the ostrich that a new breed was about to be hatched – calling themselves ‘Ostrich Purple Angel Ambassadors’, supporting the ‘Ostrich Purple Angel Dementia Awareness Campaign’ with further information available from that ‘company’ called Ostrich Care with its own new website ostrichcare.co.uk – except that there never was a care company called Ostrich Care. It was all a game. It was all the creation of an ostrich. The ambassadors was the idea of the ostrich too! Bet you didn't know that.

The ostrich informed its ‘Ostrich Purple Angel Ambassadors’ that they would be required to make mention of the ostrich at every turn. With the ostrich reserving the right to withdraw all offers of free posters, free window stickers, free postage etc at any time.

All this with Norman McNamara’s full knowledge and full support.

“We do reserve the right to withdraw this offer (of GPS trackers) – for reasons you appreciate- and we hope your growing team appreciate we too are a growing company not yet Microsoft or Twitter with billions! The more they help us with interaction on the site - shopping in the shopping mall, encouraging care homes to enhance their listings free – get involved with the trackers etc – then the more we can continue to do.” So said the Ostrich to McNamara.

The ‘Ostrich Purple Angel Ambassadors’ were all asked to register with the ostrich’s website, as well as sharing it to all memory cafés, memory clinics, care homes, newspapers, radio stations within their reach. In order to draw attention to the affiliate-marketing website of the ostrich, in order to enrich the ostrich, in order to support the ostrich. In order to maximise an ostrich.

In other words, you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.

The ostrich even had the nerve to blog about David Cameron at the G8 summit. With guest bloggers being invited onto the ostrich’s web-blog – including McNamara, of course.

Then, the ostrich invented a few companies (mostly now dissolved via compulsory striking-off), and persuaded Norman McNamara to promote most of its desires. Norman McNamara did as required and even feathered the nest with an information booklet and his assertions of EQUITY RELEASE being suitable for everyone with dementia. Or as he put it, “ to help as many as possible out there who are touched by this awful disease. there is also important advice about Equity release so you don’t have to lose your home whilst paying for care”. That is neither useful nor helpful advice, McNamara. It is misleading and muddled advice, from someone who should not be let loose on the unsuspecting public. Not that he’s ever owned a property, so he knows absolutely nothing about the ideas that he promotes. A complete purple angel booklet was written by the ostrich.

Did money change hands along the way from the Ostrich’s conception to its confinement? Did it?

Look what happened to the money from the fund-raising Babbacombe Theatre Military Wives concert – a cheque for £3461.15 was made out to OSTRICH CARE to fund some of the FREE GPS units from the ostrich. Where was the ‘young multi-millionaire’ in that? Would any multi-millionaire backer have felt the need to go down that road? Whenever you see the word FREE in anything connected to Norman McNamara, you can rest assured that there’s a catch somewhere. If you look for it, you will find it.

McNamara told everyone that the Torbay NHS Trust had also donated and agreed that they “will PAY for the first most needy 100 people call centre charges for a whole year !! they wanted to pay for 6 months but we negotiated a FULL YEAR!!”. Not what you would expect if you were being backed by a ‘multi-millionaire’, is it? Not as described on the Age UK Salford video either.

As always with Norman McNamara, the important information is what he chooses NOT to make available to anybody, or to any interviewer, about his past, his family, his dementia, and about his gimmicky over-bloated ideas.

What happened to the Ostrich, the Actor, the Plumber/Gas Engineer, the Receptionist and the Real Estate Agent? It’s beginning to sound like something out of Fawlty Towers. They all vanished once they realised that their plan to increase their footfall had fallen on stony ground. The anticipated income had fallen out of sight. The Ostrich took flight.

That is no way to treat people with dementia and/or their carers.

He knows exactly what he fails to mention. He knows exactly how the information he does provide has been selected before being twisted. He knows exactly what to leave out. Leaving the question if someone can fabricate all that, what else can someone fabricate?

All in their own very best interests. As always.

10/02/2024

Part 3 - Unpacking the video sent to us of a conversation / interview recorded in October 2021, so just over 2 years ago.

Sorry, again, to hear that Norman McNamara also had a step-brother who died with dementia. They shared the same father, apparently.

Norman McNamara says that they’ve had a few failures over the years. Perhaps he’s thinking of the abominations created, alongside companies being set up and registered at Companies House, under the banner of what is now the purple angel charity.

1. Purple Angel Holidays was a company set up in September 2015, by a few of his buddies, then dissolved via Compulsory Strike-Off in 2017. No accounts were ever submitted.

It was doomed to fail because nobody had any idea of what dementia entailed. But it was all bells and whistles for McNamara – for a while. All froth with no substance. Not one of them noticed it was doomed.

2. Hot on its heels came Purple Angel Music, set up in October 2015, by the same bunch of his buddies, then dissolved via Compulsory Strike-Off in 2022. No accounts were ever submitted. The company is listed as having been dormant from 2017 onwards.

The plan was to place mp3 players – hidden from view - in the homes of people living with dementia, playing tunes at intervals, with subliminal messages interspersed along the 12 hours (or more) of active playing, to suggest it’s time to eat or drink or put the heating on, or lock the door I’m surprised they never considered a reminder to put the cat out! Who on earth thought that one up? Oh yes, same bunch of buddies who knew nothing about dementia, safeguarding, protecting, and making decisions in the best interests of people with dementia, especially if those people are unable to make them for themselves.

It’s becoming increasingly questionable whether Norman McNamara really knows and understands much about dementia, in all its many forms, or does he just not care?

Strangely enough, the mp3 players used back in 2015 are exactly the same cheap imports from China being used to this day by the purple angel charity. Perhaps the job lot was bigger than planned.

3. Now, let’s get the elephant out of the room – or rather the Ostrich.

Norman McNamara says that the GPS trackers he tried to flog were so successful because he had the backing of a young multi-millionaire. So claims McNamara. Really??? The plan was for GPS tracking devices to be issued to people with dementia. The local NHS in Torquay must have wasted millions on the plan that failed. They were sucked in and suckered. More companies were set up at Companies House; more companies failed.

Fact: That young multi-millionaire was a young man who, in reality, merely had an affiliate-marketing website, online, and who paid for a hotel room where purple angel ambassadors were ‘appointed’ but who swore Norman McNamara to secrecy about many of his plans, until such time as he’d added the word ‘care’ to a tab name on his original website. (That's vanished too now.) Unsuspecting punters believed there was a genuine care company behind purple angel plans. Surely no self-respecting person with dementia would go along with that? It’s deception as its rawest.

He was warned about all this - but he just would not listen.

McNamara encouraged everyone to believe it was a ‘ care company’ when all it was was .... a website. This same guy is still around –and still working trying to achieve tax relief. What a relief! Was he ever a multimillionaire? If so, why did the GPS plan vanish without a trace, once he’d got what he wanted? It was not only 3 months either, Norman McNamara. His companies were set up to charge people a fairly hefty sum of money.

He did have a few other hair-brained ideas along the way – and created companies to accompany them, with the sole intention of making money. They’re all non-existent now.

It is deeply disturbing that Age UK Salfordand its EmmaSmith have chosen to promote this performance. That is all it is – a performance. Perhaps they should turn to Alzheimer's Society for reliable information rather than a performance. Or any one of more trustworthy sources available.

09/02/2024

Part 2 - Unpacking the video sent to us of a conversation / interview recorded in October 2021, so just over 2 years ago.

It’s deeply moving to learn from Norman McNamara, in this video, that he sat at his Mum’s bedside holding her hand and singing to her in the last days of her life. Singing all the songs she’d taught him as a child. Just as he had whispered into the ear of his father, holding his hand, as he died.

He says in this video from 2 years ago that he has sent out “2 or maybe 3 hundred thousand” mp3 players. Yes, that is 200,000 to 300,000 mp3 players. Well, even at his estimate of £8 - £9 each, that would have cost one hell of a lot of money. No way!!! But Age UK Salford is hugely impressed by the WOW factor of that. His claim is not challenged in the video, not corrected, just shared by AgeUK Salford for all to see. For all to be misled.

Oh, he’ll no doubt blame his mistake on dementia, in which case he should do the walking and let someone else do the talking.

As for his assertion that people with dementia never get lost – it’s time he got lost, because some people with dementia do indeed get lost. Often with serious consequences. But that’s just another of his well-rehearsed jokes to puff up his over bloated ego.

Of course listening to music via his FREE MP3s have helped cut down on the falls of some care home residents – because they’ve been in one place, you stupid boy! Sat trapped in a chair, with headphones on.

He has resurrected people from palliative care too!! 3 days prior – one woman was put on palliative care by her doctor, he says – been in her room for a month – but, miraculously, within 2 days of listening to music on her FREE r MP3 player, she got out of bed, walked downstairs – and said “where’s my lunch?” He claims to have seen all this on the video? Really?? Her muscles never came anywhere close to wasting, after being confined to her bed and her room for a month? Walking nowhere. Suddenly, within 2 days of listening to a bit of music, she’s arisen.. No wonder he can’t share the video of that miracle. Can’t? Or won’t? If it exists.

He then proceeds to take the p**s out of people who take the time to attend conferences. He must have omitted to remember that he was once also invited to attend conferences. Those invitations have dwindled now, fortunately, but he feels it appropriate to mock those who do still get invited to attend and speak at conferences. Sour grapes?

In Part 3 we turn attention to what McNamra calls his ‘ young, multi- millionaire’ backer. The one who never was a millionaire, but who managed to swear Norman McNamara to secrecy until such time as this guy changed the affiliate-marketing website he ran, and .... wait for it .... suddenly became a ‘care provider’. Another one of the myths that McNamara is quite willing to share across the globe.

01/02/2024

Gobsmacking awareness of what was going on around him in hospital. As he himself says, "there is something very wrong there". Caring Timeshas fallen for it, just as Torbay Weekly did..

Someone is at death's door, having been admitted to hospital with pancreatitis, and then goes into heart failure, kidney failure and liver failure, turning yellow along the way. His life is in danger but he is saved by those whose job is to save life.

And yet, he can say in no uncertain terms that awareness of dementia was not in evidence from all the staff surrounding him, by which he means from consultants to nurses. That takes 'awareness' to a whole new level.

How many people at death's door and in such a desperate state would be aware of that? What an ungrateful specimen of the human race. What a failure!

Yes, there is something very wrong there, Norman McNamara.

He's found another outlet for his regurgitating of old pieces of writing, many of which first surfaced decades ago. Caring Times is the latest to fall for it, the latest in a long long line.

25/01/2024

Part 1 - Unpacking the video sent to us of a conversation / interview recorded in October 2021, so just over 2 years ago.

1. Norman McNamara says in this video that the purple angel became a charity 3 years ago, so that would be circa 2018, according to his logic. Not so, Norrms, not so.

Norman McNamara always said he never would and never wanted to become a charity 'because of all the bureaucracy', and because he hated charities like Alzheimer's Society so he plodded on raising funds for years and years. It never stopped him calling the purple angel a ‘charity’, did it? Or letting other people think it was a charity. Raising funds for it.

The Torquay Crematorium thought it was a charity when they donated almost £11,000 to his group in 2018. Yet the purple angel only registered as a charity in May 2020.

That wasn’t the only large donation from the Torquay Cemetery and Crematorium either, because they held other ‘charity’ events to raise even more money for the charity-that-wasn-t-a-charity.

Many other fundraising events had been held for years before that too. The taxman had nothing to do with that.

2. Instantly, he disrespects Alzheimer's Society several times over, with his comments about having ‘walked away’ from them and more snide digs about fancy offices in London.

It was Alzheimer's Society and his (then) close connection to the Alz Soc that led to him being invited by the Alz Soc to sit in No 10 at the launch of the UK government’s initiative to shift ‘dementia’ awareness into the forefront of our thinking. They created Dementia Action Alliances (of which the purple angel was simply one of many) that began the whole ‘raising awareness’ of dementia, and dementia-friendly communities. He can’t even be honest about that. What else can’t he be honest about?

Norman McNamara saw it as acceptable to purloin much of their information documentation / leaflets / ideas etc that he subsequently used within the purple angel. Just as he is still doing today. Nothing wrong with using the info, as long as you acknowledge the source. Otherwise it’s theft or plagiarism.

Just as he purloined the logo that he now claims was created by someone in America. Oh no it wasn’t! A little doodle was transformed by professional graphic designers / artists in the UK into the very logo that he now uses, but again without acknowledging the original source. He walked away from them too, for reasons that will be explained later. Is that fair? He is well aware of what he is doing, as must be his purple angel steering group and Charity Chair and bTrustees. Or are they really not aware of how the logo was created? That’s an awareness that really should also be raised. (More another day, on that one.)

There’s not much wrong with his ability to recall events from years ago, in the finest detail. Even though he says he can’t remember what happened yesterday. The real problem is the way he chooses to forget what he doesn’t want other people to know about. A well-remembered adaptation of his usual script. From ‘corner shop’ to ‘card shop’ to ‘supermarket’.

There’s not much wrong with his lungs either. He talks non-stop for an hour in this video, without notes, without assistance.

Part 2 to follow another time.

22/01/2024

Hot on the heels of the last video sent to us, we've been sent another one today. This one is not old though. It's more recent, and hasn't been given much exposure, for reasons not obvious to us at first. It's over an hour long and we've only watched it once , so it will take time to watch again and inwardly digest. Full of things we didn't know before.

11/01/2024

We have just been sent an old video where Norman McNamara says that "unless you're absolutely sure about moving house (when you have dementia), please think about it very very carefully".

That was what McNamara said just a month or so after he moved into that luxury extra-care sheltered housing, back on 6th June 2011, with lots of people on site to help all the new residents cope as they moved in..

He outlined the pitfalls, the strain, the worry and also the fact that people living with dementia who are "a bit further down the line than me" probably wouldn't be able to handle it at all.

He is now 12 years "further down the line" himself, and tells everyone his dementia is getting worse. He is now moving house.

It doesn't make sense at all. In fact, it's beginning to look as though he may have been forced to move out, kicked out.

10/01/2024

Followers of this page have told us that Norman McNamara is fit and well enough to be moving home yet again. Good to know that his dementia is not preventing him living life to the full.

Not good to hear how he describes the luxury Sanctuary extra-care sheltered housing scheme that he so craved back in 2011 when he became one of the first residents in that luxurious brand new block of apartments.

All these years on, he frequently writes that his dementia is getting worse – dementia rarely goes away – and that he’s not well at all. But he now describes that which has been his Sanctuary, as resembling ‘a nursing home’.

What a thoroughly uncharitable thing to say. How disrespectful towards those in genuine need, and how ungrateful towards those who have provided for his own needs when he called upon them?

Many people living with dementia need to move into a nursing home, especially 16 years after being diagnosed at the age of 50. Many people without dementia would give their eye teeth to be allowed to move into such luxurious accommodation as that provided to Norman McNamara because of his dementia, in 2011 when he was only 54. He was not happy about the financial assessment he and his partner had to undergo, before being allowed to move there in the first place!!! It’s the norm, Norm, that we all have to face if we can’t afford to pay for it ourselves. Even if we’ve worked all our lives, but suddenly need support.

The big question is how can he suddenly be fit and well enough to leave such a wonderful housing complex, with all essential services and mod cons on-site, including 24/7 access to care and support from care workers if needed? Close to town and seafront, with communal lounges if you want to socialise with fellow residents; restaurant and communal landscaped gardens (with gardeners to keep the gardens looking attractive for all residents), assistive technology, hairdresser. Not far from the local hospital either, which he recently needed when he was sadly at death’s door. Not that he ever needed to call on the 24/7 on-site care provision in all those years of living with one of the most compromising forms of dementia, namely Lewy Body Dementia.

That’s the whole point of extra-care sheltered housing / retirement housing / whatever word you use to describe it – independent living for people who know that they may need more support and care in the not too distant future, but able to live as independently as possible until their needs increase. It seems that his needs have never increased.

How has his dementia improved so that he and his partner can suddenly move out, leave all that support behind, and look forward to transforming a house with a garden that resembles a derelict bomb-site? Perhaps he’s won the lottery. What if his care needs suddenly increase dramatically, back to where they were when he first moved in? What if his partner suffers a life-changing illness? Will he need a nursing home? Will he disrespect fellow residents again? Has his dementia suddenly cured itself? He's always longed for a cure. Perhaps he's found it.

It used to be said that charity begins at home. He may need to demonstrate that. His new neighbours will need to demonstrate charity too, if they are to endure his screaming, all night long, every night without fail, or will he manage to dispel his nightly night terrors and hallucinations? Like a magician.

Funny thing is this dementia. As the Alzheimer's Society will tell you. As will Agincare Dunboyne Court and Sanctuary Supported Living too.

We wish you good luck and all the best Norm Mac. You're going to need it.

17/11/2023

Disappointed to see Cllrs. Steve and Mandy Darling openly supporting this con artist.

Purple Angels Memory cafe in Torquay was a place of fellowship and laughter for my mother in law as dementia started to strike. Their 10 year celebration this weekend was heaving.

14/11/2023

Sharing memories with one of Torbay's biggest fraudsters.

04/11/2023

Our man in Manila will be in attendance to convey the truth.

Should be an interesting day.

If anyone has any personal testimony we can create a flyer to hand out during the event.

30/09/2023

What follows was written in 2010.

It seems to have been written by someone who liked a drink or ten, who had spent more than 9 years sleeping rough here and there and everywhere, before being rescued by the offer of a bed in a Salvation Army hostel, presumably in Bolton.

Not exactly the (alleged) manager-personage who had (allegedly) spent a lifetime working hard to support his family, before being struck down by Alzheimer's Disease/dementia, and forced into early retirment at the age of 50, eh??? Makes you wonder.

My Life
In Short
I once sat on a wooden bench,
With a Cider in my hand,
Watching as the world went by,
Surveying all the land,
Wondering what the future held,
Could I take a peep?
I`d just spent the last nine years,
With nowhere to sleep,
This was before I met my angel,
Who is now my darling wife,
How could she take on?
Such trouble and such strife,
Then one day my best friend died,
He was only thirty two,
And for the first time in my life,
I didnt know what to do,
The Salvation Army came along,
And offered me a bed,
If I hadnt taken it,
I would now be dead,
I decided to turn my life around,
And rented my own place,
Then I met Elaine,
My Angel with such grace,
With her strength and her support,
I am here today,
And its to the Big Fella
That i daily pray,
I have a lot to be thankful for,
This is my story told,
And if you want to know much more,
If I could be so bold,
Just ask me straight, I dont mind,
I`ll answer what I can,
But its all thanks to Elaine,
I am today, who I am
Best wishes, Norrms and family #########x