Fiona Philips announces she has Alzheimer's

[soulman101]

She lost both parent's to this cruel disease, now at 62 she has got it.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebri...tling-30390834

[mickd1961]

Sad news.

I remember her documentary maybe 15 years ago which featured her dad who was badly afflicted and even then she was terrified she’d follow both of her parents.

My own wife has the same concerns.

She’s 67 this year and her father is 94 later this year and has had dementia for the almost unheard of period of around 16-17 years.

He’s been an empty shell, a nothingness for the past 5 years and is now mute and almost blind and wears a nappy, it’s beyond awful how he has to live.

His own father lost his mind completely in his mid 70’s and was locked up at Barnsley Hall mental institution and treated as a nutter in the 70’s when he actually had Alzheimer’s but it wasn’t understood then.

My wife saw him there as a patient and it’s scarred her for life.

Her memory isn’t great but it’s always been a bit dodgy but she still fears the worst and recoils from any discussion about it.

I disagree with experts who reckon it’s not genetic.

[baggieal]

Sad news.

I remember her documentary maybe 15 years ago which featured her dad who was badly afflicted and even then she was terrified she’d follow both of her parents.

My own wife has the same concerns.

She’s 67 this year and her father is 94 later this year and has had dementia for the almost unheard of period of around 16-17 years.

He’s been an empty shell, a nothingness for the past 5 years and is now mute and almost blind and wears a nappy, it’s beyond awful how he has to live.

His own father lost his mind completely in his mid 70’s and was locked up at Barnsley Hall mental institution and treated as a nutter in the 70’s when he actually had Alzheimer’s but it wasn’t understood then.

My wife saw him there as a patient and it’s scarred her for life.

Her memory isn’t great but it’s always been a bit dodgy but she still fears the worst and recoils from any discussion about it.

I disagree with experts who reckon it’s not genetic.

Awful disease Mick! I am with you -if I lose my marbles I would want a pillow over my head.

As a kid I walked from Catshill to Bromsgrove via Barnsley Hall fields as it was a short cut. Most frightening experience ever with screams in the dark and was terrified running through the bushes.

I feel for anyone with this disease as I do with dementia. Terrible!

[BaggieSingh]

Awful disease Mick! I am with you -if I lose my marbles I would want a pillow over my head.

As a kid I walked from Catshill to Bromsgrove via Barnsley Hall fields as it was a short cut. Most frightening experience ever with screams in the dark and was terrified running through the bushes.

I feel for anyone with this disease as I do with dementia. Terrible!

Dementia really is a horrible disease watching a loved one just wither away is unbelievably cruel experience for families and the afflicted especially when you can often see and feel the confusion in their faces

Euthanasia should be allowed for this, although it does make me uncomfortable

As for Barnsley Hall, I didn’t realise the history of the place my wife used to work there when it was the offices for the NHS PCT

[Omegstrat6]

You keep reading stories in the news about there being possible breakthroughs in the treatment of this horrible illness but sadly still seems a long way off. Absolutely heart breaking for the partners and family as well as those suffering from it.

As for Barnsley Hall, I remember it quite well. A lot of my mum's family lived around Bromsgrove and my grandparents were in Catshill and we'd pass the grounds. Of course, as kids, you didn't really understand and at school it was always referred to as the "nut house" with the inmates labelled "Barnsleys" and it was one of those places kids would "dare" each other to go near.

The truth was that these institutions up and down the countries frequently held people who should never have been there. Many had been former workhouses and some of the older residents of these were so institutionalised that they simply remained inmates when they changed to Public Assistant Institutes in 1930 which continued to house the elderly, the chronically sick, the mentally ill, un-married mothers, vagrants and those who would now be diagnosed with being on the autistic spectrum all together. With the creation of the nhs and greater understanding of mental illnesses things slowly began to change and some PIA buildings became designated mental health institutes whilst others were used as offices or sold off/bulldozered but many older, institutionalised, patients with nowhere else to go remained in them.

[baggieal]

Dementia really is a horrible disease watching a loved one just wither away is unbelievably cruel experience for families and the afflicted especially when you can often see and feel the confusion in their faces

Euthanasia should be allowed for this, although it does make me uncomfortable

As for Barnsley Hall, I didn’t realise the history of the place my wife used to work there when it was the offices for the NHS PCT

Hope your well BS! Dementia is truly horrid and if I had this to the point there’s no recognition - I would want to go! That said others may have different views.

I lived in Catshill which was near Barnsley Hall and when it was a mental institution it gave me the creeps.

Any holidays planned?