Salomon told BuzzFeed News of the profound effect continued employment had on his mum – he requested for her name to not be published – as elements of her personality started to change.

"It just gave her a real sense of purpose. It normalised her. A lot of her friends have jobs and go to work and the fact she was doing something similar made her feel like a normal person," he said.

"One of the things with Alzheimer's is that you lose your social skills quite quickly and you can't join in conversations, but when it comes to her job she could talk at length about it."

A former book-keeper with a sharp eye for detail and a meticulous approach to work, Salomon's mum was hired as a picker, part of the team who put together online delivery orders. Over time, this changed to cleaning the boxes that the orders went out in.

"It sounds daft but the roles she was given were very basic, particularly the most recent one – but to her they became the most important things that anyone could do," Salomon said.



She would often arrive at the store confused, but Salomon said the store always made sure she was looked after. The company also changed her hours to better fit with her sleep pattern.