Private celeb struggles with dementia - Loose Women star to football legend
Alzheimer’s disease currently affects around six in every 10 people with dementia in the UK, and earlier this year, the Office for National Statistics revealed that these conditions were the leading causes of death in 2022.
Naturally, celebrities and their families aren’t immune from these often life-shattering diagnoses, and although many wish to maintain their privacy on the matter, some famous faces are using their positions in the spotlight to raise awareness and research into the causes of these painful diseases...
Ruth Langsford
The Loose Women host, 63, sadly lost her father Dennis to complications caused by dementia back in 2012, after he was cared for by her mother Joan for the last 13 years of his life. Ruth - who has since become a member of the Alzheimer’s Society, having fronted several of the charity’s campaigns over the last decade - previously recalled the moment her family became aware of her father’s condition.
Ruth Langsford's dad struggled with dementia (Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images)
Robbie Savage's dad Colin had Pick’s disease (Leicester City FC via Getty Imag)She said, “My family knew nothing about Alzheimer’s disease at all, and again, like a lot of people just thought, ‘Oh, that’s something when people get old and forget where they put their car keys’. And then you realise it’s so much more.”
She previously told her fellow ITV panellists, “Watching my father with Alzheimer’s, I was grieving and losing my dad, but my mum was losing the love of her life - the young man that she married and had children with. They have years and years of memories.”
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Sally Lindsay
Sally has been open about her own fears of developing dementia, after losing her grandma to Alzheimer’s as a teenager.
“My grandmother was so vibrant, and bit by bit we saw her personality diminish until she wasn’t there any more,” the Coronation Street actress previously detailed. “It was like the colour had gone, her soul had left her. She was only 64 when she was diagnosed and lived with it for six years before her passing. Losing a loved one to Alzheimer’s is seeing them die twice – when their memory goes and then when their body does. It’s horrendous.”
David Baddiel
Comedy star David, 57, said he suffered “a huge hole in my sky” after losing his beloved father Colin to Pick’s disease - a type of frontotemporal dementia - last year.
The funny-man had previously fronted the 2017 documentary The Trouble With Dad, where he discussed Colin’s slowly deteriorating symptoms and his own concerns about eventually suffering from dementia. Explaining the reason for his on-screen investigation, David explained, “One reason I want to talk about my dad’s dementia publicly is because people have a very limited picture of what dementia is, and it’s actually much more complicated than that. What you get are fictitious ideas about dementia. I think we need to look at the dark rainbow of dementia and the different ways it manifests.”
Robbie Savage
Robbie was forced to watch his own father Colin cut down by Pick’s disease in 2012 after a long and inflicting battle.
The 48-year-old joined the Alzheimer’s Society as an ambassador in honour of his dad, later telling fans, “Anyone who has experienced Pick’s disease or Alzheimer’s in their household knows that it doesn’t just claim one victim. Those who are left to care are victims, too.”
Former footballer turned pundit Robbie reminisced, “I used to go and visit my dad, knowing that he was gently slipping away, but often he would look right through you without a flicker of recognition and I would drive home with tears in my eyes. And yet, right near the end, when my mum was with him, he seemed to be gesturing towards the TV remote. She realised he had spotted me on the TV, doing the half-time analysis for the BBC, and he still recognised his son on the box.”
Dame Arlene Phillips
Earlier this year, Dame Arlene, appeared in Parliament to demand the deliverance of timely access to an accurate Alzheimer’s diagnosis. The choreographer, 80, endured the emotional agony of seeing her father battle the condition for more than a decade, before he died in 2000.
In an open letter presented to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the former Strictly Come Dancing judge and Alzheimer’s Society ambassador wrote, “Sadly, like hundreds of thousands of families across the UK, I’ve seen the devastation caused by dementia, while caring for my father. I stand with everyone affected by dementia and urge the Government to deliver on their promises for the 900,000 people living with dementia.”
Arlene pleaded, “They need help now and hope for the future through more breakthroughs in research. We can’t let dementia fall down the political agenda – getting a diagnosis is the first step but such an important one.”
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Vicky McClure
The Line Of Duty actress was named in King Charles’ Birthday honours last month for her charity work as an ambassador for the Alzheimer’s Society. MBE Vicky, 40, joined forces with the charity after her grandmother Iris was diagnosed with the condition in 2018, later founding the Nottingham-based Our Dementia Choir to raise awareness of Alzheimer’s.
“At first I didn’t really know what dementia meant and how it affected people. I had an idea it was just old people forgetting whether they’d locked the front door but then my nana developed dementia so its full impact really hit home,” she previously told fans.
“My nana is where my determination to defeat dementia was born from and she continues to inspire me. Now I feel that everything I do now that is related to the cause is in her memory. If it wasn’t for her I probably wouldn’t be here doing all these things. It’s her legacy.”
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