Sir Jackie Stewart shares heartbreaking dementia concerns after F1 hero's stroke
Sir Jackie Stewart said he is "forgetting people's names" as he shared his dementia fears after suffering a mini-stroke six weeks ago.
The Formula 1 legend was in Jordan when it happened, on June 1, the night before the royal wedding he had been invited to attend. Fortunately, he was back on his feet swiftly and was in attendance at the British Grand Prix earlier this month, before also showing up at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
But while he says he is "fully operational", the 84-year-old admits he has lost some of his sharpness. And he seems convinced that he will one day receive a dementia diagnosis – as his beloved wife Helen was given nine years ago.
"You know, I could easily have it," The inimitable Scot told The Telegraph. "I've got all the makings of it. I'm forgetting people's names occasionally and I'm not as sharp as I was. If I have it, I have it.
"I'm not suggesting that I do have it. But I probably will get it. Dementia is the leading cause of death in the UK. For everyone born today, one of the three will die of dementia."
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It is no surprise that Sir Jackie knows so many facts and figures about the disease. Inspired not only by his wife's fight but also those of so many of his old friends and colleagues from the F1 world, he is at the forefront of the campaign to find a cure through his Race Against Dementia initiative, founded in 2016.
He has been able to use his extensive influence within the motorsport world to fund the training of leading research scientists in a bid to speed up the process in the hunt for a cure. "I started to realise the power that Formula 1 had in terms of Helen's illness," said Sir Jackie.
"When you're a racing driver, everything happens very quickly. In Britain, we are leading the world in terms of technology. And when I compare that with me coming into a situation with my wife of 60 years as it is at the moment.
Sir Jackie hunts a cure for dementia, the disease suffered by his beloved wife Helen (Roland Leon Sunday Mirror)"I can't believe that for something taking more lives than anything else in the world right now, including cancer, we are so far behind. Seventy years and we've still not found a cure. The establishment has failed on this. So we are turning to young PhD students to try to find the answers."
The sad reality of the situation is, despite all his hard work, any cure that may one day be discovered will come too late for Helen. Sir Jackie said of his wife's condition: "Five o'clock at night, she'll be out of conversation, not just quietness but unable to say anything.
"Today we were sitting with a friend having lunch and we were chatting about Sean Connery, who was a good friend. Sean had dementia. And Helen gasped and said, 'He didn’t have dementia'. And I said, 'Yes darling'. She said, 'How's Sean?', and I said, 'Sean died baby'. And she was about to cry.
"There are things she's no longer finding normal. I saw for the first time today that she hasn't been going into her study at all. We've got a lovely drawing room, and a very nice TV room but Helen will be in the conservatory. She doesn't want to sit out in the garden either. It's upsetting to see her get so upset when she can't do anything for herself."
Happily, for now, Helen still recognises the husband who continues to work so hard to help his beloved partner. Sir Jackie added: "We travel together with two nurses. We have specialist care 24 hours a day. I'm lucky I can have the best possible people. I can afford that but that's only because I was once a racing driver.
"The homes I go to where others are suffering, it's so depressing. I've got two mechanics who helped me to become world champion – they've got dementia and there's nothing we can do about it. That's what drives me. In Formula 1, you'd get the best team to identify it and solve it. That's the kind of thinking we need to apply to this. It's a race against time."
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