Alzheimer’s is the cruellest illness. It robs people of their personality, their connection with family and friends, their freedom, and their dignity. A few years ago, I wept as I watched Mum’s personality being slowly torn apart. Going through it all again recently with Dad was even harder.

Before you are forced to deal with dementia, you hear that people get forgetful and confused. What I wasn’t prepared for was the steady erosion of what made my parents such wonderful people. The weird skewedness of conversation, the blurring of reality and delusion, the anxiety, the paranoia, the frustration, the out-of-character shouting and swearing, the mistrust and resentment towards those who cared the most, my father’s accusations of people trying to kill him, the look of utter fear in my mother’s eyes.

On 16 July, I am walking 26 miles to raise money for The Alzheimer’s Society. Please sponsor me. The walk goes right past the house where I was born and where my parents lived for 59 years. https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/get-involved/events-and-fundraising/join-event/trekking/trek26-cotswolds

In the UK, 20% of people over the age of 85 have dementia. 40% of people over 90 have it. Worldwide, 36 million people have dementia. This number is expected to double every 20 years.