The Yours Members site has all the latest from the magazine, including celebrity interviews like this open and honest chat with TV star Fiona Phillips who previously ‘lived in fear’ of having Alzheimer’s Disease. Now, aged 62, she’s opened up about her diagnosis and the ground-breaking drug trial offering a glimmer of hope.
For the past few months, Fiona Phillips has been walking every day, meeting friends for coffee and sharing dinners with her husband, This Morning boss, Martin Frizell. But behind the scenes, she’s been coming to terms with heartache. The TV presenter – who is just 62 – was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s 19 months ago, after losing both her parents to the cruel disease.
“This disease has ravaged my family and now it has come for me,” said Fiona, who says she was left feeling “angry” and in “total shock” at the diagnosis. “All over the country there are people of all different ages whose lives are being affected by it – it’s heartbreaking. I just hope I can help find a cure, which might make things better for others in the future.”
Mum-of-two Fiona discovered she had Alzheimer’s after struggling with brain fog and anxi- ety, which she put down to the menopause at first.
“I’ve cried a thousand rivers in the past few weeks and I’ve got nothing to be sad about,” she told the Mirror newspaper at the time. “I’ve been fearing for my sanity and I’m scared to do things I’ve been doing with ease for years. They call it brain fog; I don’t know what I’m talking about half the time.”
When HRT didn’t stop the symptoms, the ITV presenter was referred for cognitive tests, and a lumbar puncture to test her spinal fluid. Shockingly, these revealed that – like her mum, Amy, and dad, Neville – she had Alzheimer’s.
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