Alzheimer’s disease recently affects around six in ten people with dementia in the UK and, earlier this year, the Office for National Statistics found that those conditions were the leading causes of death in 2022.
Naturally, celebrities and their families are not immune to the diagnoses they provoke, and while many wish to maintain their privacy about it, some prominent faces use their positions at the highlights to raise awareness and studies about the causes of those painful diseases.
The 63-year-old Loose Women presenter sadly lost her father Dennis to dementia headaches in 2012, after being cared for by her mother Joan for the last thirteen years of her life. Ruth, who has since become a member of the Alzheimer’s Society and led several of the charity’s campaigns over the past decade, recalled the moment her circle of relatives became aware of her father’s condition.
She said, “My circle of relatives knew nothing about Alzheimer’s, and again, like a lot of other people were thinking, ‘Oh, it’s anything when other people get older and where they put their car keys. ‘And then you realize it’s so much more.
In the past, she had told other ITV panelists: “Looking at my father with Alzheimer’s, I was crying and wasting my father, but my mother was wasting the love of her life – the young man she married and had children. They have years and years of memories.
Sally has been open about her own fears of dementia, after her grandmother suffered from Alzheimer’s disease as a teenager.
“My grandmother was very dynamic, and little by little, we saw her personality diminish until she disappeared,” the Coronation Street actress detailed in the past. “It was as if the color had disappeared, his soul had left him. She was just 64 when she was diagnosed and lived with him for six years before her passing. To lose a loved one to Alzheimer’s disease is to see them die twice: when the memory disappears and then when the body disappears. It’s horrible.
Comedy star David, 57, said he suffered “a huge hole in my sky” after losing his beloved father Colin to Pick’s disease, a frontotemporal dementia, last year.
The funnyman had screened the 2017 documentary The Trouble With Dad in the past, where he talked about the slow deterioration of Colin’s symptoms and his own considerations about the option of suffering from dementia. Explaining the reason for his on-screen research, David explained, “One of the reasons I want to speak publicly about my father’s dementia is that other people have a very limited picture of what dementia is, and it’s much more confusing than that. What you get are fictional concepts about dementia. ” Mentia. I think we want to take a look at the dark rainbow of dementia and the other tactics in which it manifests itself.
Robbie was forced to watch his own father Colin be knocked down by Pick’s illness in 2012 after a long and grueling battle.
The 48-year-old joined the Alzheimer’s Society as an ambassador in honor of his father, later telling fans, “Anyone who has experienced Pick’s disease or Alzheimer’s disease at home knows they’re not just a victim. Those who have to deal with them are also victims.
Former footballer-turned-expert Robbie recalled: “I used to pass the layover at my father’s house, knowing he was slowly walking away, but he would look at you without a shred of popularity and I would come home with tears in my eyes. And yet, toward the end, when my mother was with him, he seemed to be pointing at the TV remote. He found out that he had seen me on TV, doing part-time research for the BBC, and still identified his son in the box.
Earlier this year, Dame Arlene gave the impression in Parliament to call for timely access to an accurate diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. The 80-year-old choreographer endured the emotional agony of watching her father battle the disease for more than a decade, before he died in 2000.
In an open letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the former ambassador for Strictly Come Dancing and the Alzheimer’s Society wrote: “Sadly, like thousands of families across the UK, I have noticed the devastation caused by dementia, although I am worried for my father. I stand with all those affected by dementia and urge the government to deliver on its promises to the other 900,000 people living with dementia. “
Arlene pleaded: “They want now and hope for the long term through further advances in research. We cannot allow dementia to fall into the political timeline – getting a diagnosis is the first step, but it is very important. “
The Line Of Duty actress nominated on King Charles’ birthday last month for her charity paintings as an ambassador for the Alzheimer’s Society. MBE Vicky, 40, partnered with the charity after her grandmother Iris diagnosed her with the condition in 2018, and then founded the Nottingham-based choir Our Dementia to raise awareness of Alzheimer’s disease.
“At first, I didn’t really know what dementia meant and how it affected other people. I had this idea that they were just elderly people who forgot if they had closed the front door, but my grandmother developed dementia, so its full effect really touched the house,” he previously told fans.
“My grandmother awakened my determination to beat dementia and she continues to motivate me. Now I feel that everything I do now that is similar to the cause is in his memory. If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t be here doing all those things. That’s his legacy. “
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