Pete Hill, The Host & Founder of The "D" Word

All Home Care Matters - Episode 252 (Please Subscribe)


All Home Care Matters was honored to welcome Pete Hill as a guest to the show. Pete is the founder and host of The "D" Word which can be found on UK Health Radio.

Born in London Pete spent over 30 years in local government as a Chartered Environmental Health Practitioner while combining a part time career in sports radio. He spent two years seconded to the Health Protection Agency running a national partnership working project and was then appointed Head of Climate Change at Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council. His media CV includes presenting live sports commentaries for a number of TV and radio stations as well as writing regular articles for sports magazines. In 2013 he took up a post as news editor for an environmental website while running his own consultancy Jigsaw SPH which provided social media coverage for Public Health events.

Pete admits his outlook on life changed in 2016 when he was appointed as Group Activity Support Manager for West Essex by the Alzheimer’s Society. His duties involved managing six, weekly social groups for people living with dementia in the community. When the contract ended in 2018 Pete decided to combine his interest in dementia with his lifelong love of radio and start The ‘D’ Word as he was shocked that nobody had taken up the idea. The show which is hosted by UK Health Radio is now in its fourth year and approaching 200 episodes.

About The "D" Word:

The ‘D’ Word is the only weekly radio show that talks about dementia and as presenter Pete Hill describes it only happened because he was stuck inside on a rainy afternoon. “ One day I was bored because it was raining outside and decided to do an internet search on radio and dementia. I’d had an idea for a while about doing a radio show based around dementia but always thought someone out there would already be doing it.” To Pete’s surprise he found that despite being the biggest cause of death in the UK it was a subject that nobody was tackling on radio and the ‘D’ Word was born.

The story though really starts in the early 1980’s as Pete explained; “I volunteered as a teenager to present radio shows at Friern Hospital in North London and at the time I knew very little about dementia but soon found that was what a large number of the patients in the hospital were living with.” That started a semi professional career in radio while holding down a day job in local government as an Environmental Health Practitioner.

In 2013 Pete made the decision to set up his own public health consultancy but as he admits it was the decision to take up a post with the Alzheimer’s Society in 2016 that changed his life. “ I managed six, weekly activity groups for people living with dementia in the community and met some amazing people. It rekindled an interest I’d had back at Friern Hospital in the 80’s and gave me the desire to get people talking about dementia as they do about other health conditions,” said Pete. “I’d known Johann from a few years ago when I did a weekly public health feature on UK Health Radio so I contacted him to see if he would be interested in a show about dementia and the rest as they say is history.”

On The ‘D’ Word you’ll find Pete talking to people from all walks of life who have an interest in dementia, The reaction has been amazing with people from all over the world getting behind the idea and wanting to talk about their experiences on the station which has 1.3 million listeners a month worldwide.