The newly elected chairman of Wycombe District Council has pledged to raise awareness of dementia throughout her year in post.

Councillor Suzanne Brown – who has served as vice-chairman for the past year - took over from Cllr Mahboob Hussain at WDC’s annual meeting yesterday evening (May 15) following a unanimous vote.

As she begins her new role the two-time Marlow mayor said she will dedicate her time to promoting Dementia Friends - which trains volunteers to help people living with dementia.

Addressing the full council, Cllr Brown said: “I am going to concentrate my year on making people more aware about dementia and how it affects people’s lives, because I was quite surprised that one person every three minutes is diagnosed with dementia, which I found completely shocking.

“In a few years’ time there will be over a million of us suffering from this.”

Cllr Brown represents the Marlow South East ward on WDC, is the manager of Age Concern Marlow in Glade Road, and works on the Marlow Town Regatta committee.

She added: “I am promoting dementia friends, some of you may have heard of it, where people get trained and they look after a neighbour or a friend just for a couple of hours so they have time with other people.

“I would like to thank my chairman for this year. I really enjoyed working with Mahboob and I would like to thank you all for electing me and I will work on this job to the best of my ability.”

Cllr Ron Gaffney nominated Cllr Brown for the role, hailing her as a “leading light in Marlow”, however joked all the hat shops in the district would not “satisfy her demands”.

He said: “Since becoming a district councillor two years ago she has not been a shrinking violet. She has got stuck in.

“An important member of my Improvement and Review commission and as you all know she did a great job of being a vice chairman last year.

“Now it wouldn’t be me if I didn’t end on a light hearted note. My one worry – I am not sure all the hat shops in Marlow and High Wycombe will be able to satisfy her demands.

“I am told at the last count Suzanne has 38 hats and still counting and she will undoubtedly need a cushion for the role she is going to take. I save the best for last, above all else Suzanne is simply a lovely person with a lovely personality to match.”

Cllr Tony Green who represents Terriers and Amersham Hill will join Cllr Brown as vice-chairman for the year 2017 to 2018.