About
Gerda Van Tongerloo (68) was diagnosed with Vascular Cognitive Impairment in 2017. She lives independently in Zeist (near Utrecht) in the Netherlands with her three dogs. She is very active and has many hobbies, among which playing tennis and football, cooking, singing in a choir, and playing the drums and (melodic) percussion instruments in the harmony orchestra.
She participated in the television program “Restaurant Misverstand” (the Dutch version of “The Restaurant That Makes Mistakes” from the UK) and after that she became a public advocate for people with dementia affiliated to Alzheimer Netherlands.
She is an active member of the working group of people with dementia of Alzheimer Netherlands.
She is a member of the Social Advisory Board of Alzheimer Netherlands, that advises on the social impact and funding of research projects on dementia in the Netherlands.
She is trainer, advisor and expert by experience for the dementia friendly society and daily life with dementia, all over the Netherlands and the Netherlands Antilles.
She is co-researcher in Brain Power, a research group of the University of Applied Sciences Utrecht, that won the INTERDEM Academy Publication Award with “What matters most: exploring the everyday lives of people with dementia” in 2024. Brain Power also published the practical book “How to live with dementia”.
She is a member of the DEEP UK Network of Dementia Voices.
She is a participant and evaluator of projects from the Expertise Centre for Dementia and Technology of the Eindhoven University of Technology.
She featured in several videos for Alzheimer Netherlands amongst one in which she made a call to action for politicians to “stop talking and start acting”.
She regularly appears in dementia conferences and other public events as guest speaker. Her aim is to explain what living with dementia is like and how society’s treatment of people with dementia has to change.
Gerda joined the EWPWD in 2024.
In 2024, Alzheimer Nederland nominated Gerda Van Tongerloo for the mandate 2024-2027.