This article contains affiliate links. We may earn a small commission on items purchased through this article, but that does not affect our editorial judgement. Michael Booth, an involvement member with Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust, was only 46 when he was told he had dementia.
Now, five years on, he gives talks around the world on the condition. Advertisement Advertisement Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Hartlepool Mail, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. “The diagnosis was a real blow, especially as I’d just watched my mum go through it.
One of the hardest parts was to tell my dad that, after losing his wife to dementia, I now had it too,” said Michael. “It felt like a kick in the stomach at the time, and still does. It’s a terminal disease, there is no cure, so it was a case of coming to terms with it.
That’s why I started writing the book. “If the book helps just one person, either someone with Alzheimer’s or their carer, to accept the disease and live the best they can, then as far as I’m concerned, it has done its job.” Michael was born in Hartlepool but moved to South Africa with his family as a child.
Advertisement Advertisement He returned home to help out when his grandfather developed signs of dementia – and stayed on. “Although it was a sad situation, my grandfather was in his 80s at the time. An age wh.