Alastair Stewart fighting to distinguish shapes as he battles dementia
Alastair Stewart is fighting to distinguish shapes as he battles his worsening dementia.
The ex-ITV News host, 71, who has children Alex, 41, Clemmie, 38, Freddie, 30 and Oscar, 25 with wife Sally Ann Jung, 67, began to realise he was ill when he forgot how to do up his tie and button his shirts in the morning before his new job hosting GB News.
He said in an article he wrote for Saga magazine about his fight to now sort out shapes in his mind: “Two other people have been a huge help: a mental health nurse who suggested a white board for the kitchen as an aide-memoire – something plenty of people without dementia find useful – and an occupational therapist sent by the stroke team, who has been brilliant.
“We sit at the kitchen table and do spot-the-odd-one-out exercises, word searches and – the thing I find most difficult – looking at a jumble of shapes on a page, then trying to reproduce them in a drawing on the following page.”
He added about how his wife spotted he could be ill: "Sally said she first knew something was wrong when she asked me to reset our kitchen clock and I couldn't do it; I couldn't conceptualise what the hands signified, and I could no longer glance up and say it was ten past 11."
Alastair also said he has felt "discombobulated" and struggled with remembering simple information.
And the news recalled the moment he was overcome with horror when he learned he had dementia.
He said: “My immediate reaction was terror at those two words, strokes and dementia, although I remained super-calm (while saying a rather strong expletive in my head.)
“Both Sal and I felt like we were in a scene from Emergency Ward 10 or Casualty. As someone who loves language and has made my career from it, there is no getting away from the fact that when a professional looks you in the eye and says you've got dementia, it's a shocker, no matter how much you are prepared for it.”
But the journalist is adamant he won’t let dementia define him.
He said: “Yes, I have dementia, but it's not the end of the road for me, I'm 71 and I still have a lot to give.
“People sometimes ask if I feel frightened about what the future holds. I don't, although maybe I should. I'm certainly apprehensive and concerned about the prospect of deterioration.
“But I'm incredibly confident in my family: whatever nature and medicine throws at me, we will tackle it together. I feel so incredibly lucky.”
