Dementia and Alzheimer’s slowly took the nan I’d lived with all my life away from me and, in the end, left our family with someone that none of us recognised any more. Unless you have directly seen someone you love suffer this cruel illness, I think it’s hard for you to fully understand all that comes with the disease.

Ten years ago, the first signs of my nan’s dementia and Alzheimer’s started to showed, with her doing things like putting salt in the fridge or coming home with a food shop but not really having anything to make a meal out of and she started to hand cashiers her purse as she was unable to work out how much they needed. Back then there were moments of clarity where you could see she knew that something was amiss, but in the end there was nothing but a blank glaze behind her eyes. Before long she was unable to remember how to turn on a light switch, read or cook – and then there was the moment when she no longer knew who I was, couldn’t remember giving birth to her three children and seemed to only remember her childhood with her sisters.

Our family mostly dealt with the disease by laughing (usually in despair!) and using humour to keep us all sane, however the toll this disease takes on families is huge – especially for the main carer, who is constantly having to think for them. Imagine the strain of thinking about how much water they’ve had. Have they had their medication? Are they clean? Fed? Stimulated? The vicious circle of looking after someone with dementia is relentless and
thankless, as the patient can’t even remember all that you do for them.

And that’s not really all of my story. I’ve had hours of rants on the UK care system, the lack of support we as a family felt was missing from the system and it’s a subject that I’m really passionate about, so if I can help another family just a tiny bit and help a carer get just a few hours off so that they get some “me” time, then I’m happy with that.

In memory of my once vibrant nan who lost her battle last year, I will be taking part in the memory walk on 3rd September. Any donations would be hugely appreciated.

Much love

Angie