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Watching my Dad deteriorate with alzheimer's to end stage was truly degrading for him and traumatic for me. Like others say, he died twice. This isn't humane!

My mum was diagnosed with dementia 7 years ago adter we noticed she was having ome slight problems with her memory. Things progressed fairly slowly until around d a year ago. In a short space of time, she went from carers coming in twice a day, to four times a day and now into a care home. She has hallucinations, is constantly worried and anxious, can be tearful and angry, and behaves in ways that would horrify her if she realised. In her more lucid moments she knows who I am, but sometimes thinks I'm her Mum and sometimes I think I'm just a familiar face. I know that we have to make the most of the time we have her and that it's the illness that is causing her to behave in ways that are not my mum or my childrens grandma. She was very involved in their life growing up and they all still visit, hug her and tell her they love her regularly. I think she can feel this love even when she's not sure who we are. We don't know how much longer we might have her and no-one can gives us a timeline. I think that's perhaps the hardest thing,, no knowing how long you may have them for and how quickly or slowly this horrible illness will go, taking little pieces of her from us every day.

My father would go wandering and then not know his way back home due to vascular dementia. He lived alone and we only realised the problem when the police phoned as they had picked him up. He told the Doctor I was his Aunt. He wouldn't come live with us and stopped eating and became aggressive. It broke my heart when we had to put him in a Home as we couldn't cope. He hated it and we had to then put him in a locked Home as he was wandering. I felt so much guilt, he was very unhappy and we felt some relief when he passed. Very scary and sad disease as you lose the person you knew who turned into someone we didn't recognise. He used to think his family were people from the Salvation Army or the Church and we lost him before he died.

My mother has dementia. My sister was her carer until she couldn't cope any more, and now my mother is in a home. Gradually, everything has gone. She used to walk a lot, but now she can't do that and she's in a wheelchair. She barely communicates, but the staff can find out what she wants to eat, when she wants to go to bed and so on. We've not received any help, or indication of what will happen next, or what we should do. Her savings have gone, so now we have to sell the house.
My Mum has gone. She doesn't know us. It was when she didn't recognise her favourite picture of my Dad that we knew that was the end. I feel helpless. She doesn't know who we are.

My mum has vascular dementia and to see her slowly forgetting is heartbreaking i we are a close family who ate caring for her at my home I personally would like to thank chanel 4 and everyone in making the programme

My husband is 69 and has Lewy Bodies Dementia. He was finally diagnosed 2 years ago after a fight to get help.
He is getting more and more confused and muddled. He doesn’t sleep well at night as he Hallucinates due to the Dementia.
He sees various things, Victorian people. Koala Bears. Cats etc, so obviously because he doesn’t sleep then neither do I as I have to go along with the hallucinations and he asks me to get rid of the things he sees, I have to tell them to leave and even open the front door so he can see me throw them out.
I care for him 24/7 and I’m now getting burnt out and exhausted, my heart goes out to him as he must feel so mixed up not understanding anything.
There is no help where I live, no support etc, without my daughter I don’t think I could get through.

Watching my close friend lose her beautiful mum from dementia, over several years, was so, so hard. In sharing her experience we found that so many families are going through the exact same situation, without the support they desperately need. The work of Alzheimer’s Society gives me hope for a different future!