A FATHER living with advanced dementia made his daughter’s dreams come true when he surprised her by turning up to walk her down the aisle.

Barrow-born Ray Turner, 85, was diagnosed with dementia six years ago and has been living at Hillcroft nursing home in Lancaster for the past two years.

His daughter and then bride-to-be, Tracey Rezamand, was resigned to the fact her father wouldn’t be able to attend, decided no-one could take his place and planned to walk down the aisle alone.

She said: "For quite a while I had been thinking about how nice it would be to have my father there and to have pictures taken with him, but I knew that I couldn’t expect everybody to make a detour to Lancaster."

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Unbeknown to the Roose Road resident, carers Karen Doran and Melissa Baines, had been in secret talks with her son Tarrick, and organised to bring Mr Turner back to his hometown for the nuptials.

Mrs Rezamand said: "It meant the world to me to have him there and I can’t thank Karen and Mel enough.

"It was a total shock when he started showing symptoms - we all started noticing that something wasn’t right, he was forgetting things and he started slurring his words.

"It was very hard when he started to lose his speech but when I saw him on my wedding day his eyes lit up and he smiled at me.

"I was just so shocked to see him, he looked really well."

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The father-of-three and grandfather-of-eight, donned a shirt and tie for his special role in ceremony held at Barrow Registry office on Friday, September 1.

Mrs Doran, who helped arrange the former Kimberley Clark worker's return, found the whole day "heart-warming".

She said: "Dementia should never get in the way of making memories for families.

"Ray has grown to trust us over the years and we didn’t see any reason why he couldn’t walk his daughter down the aisle on her big day.

"When we drove into Barrow, Ray showed signs of recognising everything, from the Barrow-in-Furness sign to the Registry Office. It was lovely to be part of the day."

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