Lizzie Penman-Green opened Lizzie’s Helping Hearts in June after three years of fundraising. She is now giving up her care home role to build it into a full-time service for families.
The founder of a community dementia cafe in Southborough is leaving her job in a care home to work on the project full time, three months after it opened its doors.
Lizzie Penman-Green set up Lizzie’s Helping Hearts as a community interest company in August 2023, Companies House records show, and spent the next three years fundraising. The cafe held its first session on 20 June 2026 in a church annexe in Southborough, Tunbridge Wells.
It already has 11 regular members, she said, alongside carers, family members and newcomers who come along to meet the group.
“The most important thing for me is not just how many people come through the door, but that the people who do come feel supported, understood and part of something,” she said.
A leap of faith
Ms Penman-Green works as a lifestyle lead in a residential care home and has worked in dementia care and activities for more than eight years.
“I absolutely love what I do and leaving is a huge leap of faith for me,” she said. “But I have realised that if I genuinely want Lizzie’s Helping Hearts to become what I know it can be, I have to give it the time and energy it deserves.
“There comes a point where you either keep talking about your dream or you take the chance and try to make it happen. I have decided to take the chance.”
Sessions are not yet weekly. Her long-term aim is a permanent home for the cafe, open five days a week.
What happens at a session
No two sessions are the same, she said. Activities include reminiscence, singing, arts and crafts, colour therapy, quizzes, chair exercise, balloon tennis and boxercise, and some sessions are themed around memories, music or food.
“But actually the most important part is often what happens in between the activities,” she said. “It is having a cup of tea with somebody who understands. It is a carer being able to speak to another carer. It is someone living with dementia being treated as a person first, rather than being defined by their diagnosis.
“We started as a cafe, but I genuinely feel we have become a family.”
Ms Penman-Green said members had told the team “you are my lifeline” and “you are a reason to get up in the mornings”. One woman, she said, had thought her life was over after losing her husband, and told them the cafe had given her a reason to believe in life again.
How it is funded
Ms Penman-Green said she raised around £17,000 over three years through social media and fundraising to get the cafe started, and that it has since received £20,000 from The National Lottery Community Fund, along with other donations.
Sessions cost money to open and run, she said, so keeping the cafe sustainable is the priority. The larger plan is to offer families free rest and respite from caring.
“That means appropriate premises, trained people, insurance, safeguarding procedures, equipment and ongoing funding,” she said. “I never want finances to be the reason a family cannot access support.
“Dementia affects an entire family, not just the person diagnosed, and carers can become completely exhausted.”
The people behind it
“I could never pretend this has been achieved by me alone,” Ms Penman-Green said. She thanked her fellow directors Olivia Tarpey, Alessandra Field and Leanne Gray and the cafe’s volunteers, in particular Angie, who has supported it from the beginning, and Sara, who gives her time to support members.
How to get involved
- Who it is for: anyone affected by dementia, including carers and family members.
- Where: a church annexe in Southborough, Tunbridge Wells. Session dates vary, so check before travelling.
- Find out more: lizzieshelpinghearts.com
- Helping out: the cafe wants to hear from people who could volunteer, fundraise or partner with it.
“Nobody should feel they have to go through difficult times on their own,” she said.
Southborough dementia cafe founder leaves care home job to grow the service Quiz
5 questions
Sources
- Written answers from Lizzie Penman-Green, founder of Lizzie’s Helping Hearts CIC, to questions from Kent Local News, 19 September 2026
- Companies House: Lizzies Helping Hearts CIC (company number 15059193)
- Lizzie’s Helping Hearts website