Share your story

My husband who is 87 has always been poor at remembering peoples names. His referral to the memory clinic was suggested during a routine annual check up at the surgery. He was diagnosed finally in 2020 with Alzheimer’s. I am his sole carer and our children all live at a distance. Ian enjoys walking and daily puzzles. He is still fairly independent. He is an only child and has been deaf for many years.

I am on leave and I will finally leave and get

I half a mixed Dementia - Alzheimer’s Disease and Vascular Dementia. I'm 58 old and very fitness is pretty good. I've started going to my baths to keep more fit.
I know down the road it will get me whatever

My mum was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s last year. Which has been very hard as she has multiple other illnesses too. I was shocked that the support from the NHS was practically none existent, so I have now volunteered to support my employer to create dementia ambassadors within the organisation. I am a glass half full person, so would like to say where there’s life and time, there is hope - but so much more funding for research is needed.

My mum will be 103 in December She was diagnosed with dementia in her nineties and I cared for her until she was 100 years old. She is now in a care home as I could not manage on my own any longer. The cost is £7200 every 4 weeks which equates to the astronomical sum of £93600 per year! Mum has worked since she was 14 - since 1935. Apart from the lower level of carer’s allowance in the last few years she has never claimed anything from the state. She is not rich and her assets are dwindling very fast. She is ill and I would have hoped that by paying taxes all her life there would be some significant financial support for her.

It was my husband who started worrying that I was forgetting things. When I left a cycle pannier in the doctor's surgery, he arranged an assessment locally. Apart from not being able to count backwards from a hundred in sevens, I did quite well. More recently, I paid for an MRI brain scan, which led to an assessment of 'Mild Cognitive Impairment'.

I lost my beloved mum to this awful disease slowly over 9 years
It wasn't too bad for the first couple of years when she would just forget things but I had to start getting carers in to help her with cooking as she would often forget that she was cooking her dinner
I ended up having to move her into an assisted flat when she started forgetting to lock her door

The last 18 months of her life she wasn't getting the proper care and I was planning on moving her into a home as she would often fall over and because she couldn't get up by herself she would lie on the floor until either the carer or staff member came in to check on her as she would forget to press her personal alarm

The last fall that happened saw her taken to the hospital and she died when she had a massive heart attack

She was always talking about family members who had passed before her and I would ask her the same questions about them I thought it was more important to not say that they were dead as she would get quite upset

We used to listen to her favourite music and watch her favourite films for a trip down memory lane

I am lucky in the fact that she always knew who I was

I just wish she was still with me to talk to

My husband Brian was diagnosed in 2021 he had been showing signs of depression and unusual symptoms since 2018 but I didn’t know what was causing him to behave in the way he was he complained that he didn’t feel well dizzy ness and forgetful ness started we had a big family holiday to celebrate my 70 birthday and he wasn’t quit himself but still enjoyed it then after the diagnosis in 2021 he was prescribed tables to slow it down and we had visits to the hospital memory clinic till 2022 when she said he had deteriorated too far and she couldn’t help any more and the tablets were to continue but hadn’t slowed the illness down we were the under a special doctor from different hospital and nurses to visit but it just got worse and worse he shouted and screamed had delusions stoped going to bed and wandering all night fall over lots of paramedics call hospital admissions he stopped speaking any sence did know me ore our kids I was worn out had a week of respite in local home in 2023 then 2 months later he fell badly hitting the fireplace and paramedics came and said u can’t vary on so with the help of social workers and paramedics took him. too local care home in April 2023 he is still there but detoriated more and more he has lost so much weight he has lost all use of legs he has to be lifted up out of bed he can’t talk he’s double i continent can’t hold a cup I visit every other day but he sometimes smiles sometimes not he can’t speak at all I love him so much he was my sole mate we have been together for 53 years he was a area manager for a shoe company before he retired we travelled together and had 3 kids 5 grandkids he would be horrified to know what happened there is no dignity in this illness it just took him away and left a non functional body behind