We grew up in a wee village called Doune, where everyone knew each other. My mum and her sister, my aunt Beth, were best friends all of their lives. They were even widowed within six months of each other, which was terrible but we all thought ‘at least they have each other.’ Everyone thought they would grow old together.
Unfortunately, Aunt Beth developed Alzheimer’s Disease not long after that and she died five years ago. Mum started having trouble with her memory in 2019 and was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease during the pandemic. She’s still living at home, with lots of support from our family and carers coming in. We’re lucky that there’s lots of us around to help out. A lot of people don’t get the support they need to live with dementia or care for someone with dementia – but they should.
Unless dementia affects your life directly, you don’t tend to think about it or know much about it. There needs to be more publicity about dementia because it affects so many people, so many families. That’s why we took part in Scotland’s Memory Walk last year to raise funds for Alzheimer Scotland – me, my daughter and my grandchildren. We’ll be doing it again this year, more of us this time, to celebrate my mum and my Aunt Beth.
Sign up for this year's Memory Walk here.
