It’s been awful to read the story about Sir Jackie Stewart’s wife’s battle with dementia. But it’s been inspiring, quite wonderful to see Sir Jackie’s response. He’s launched a charity called Race for Dementia, donating £1 million himself, in order to bring together the best scientists and experts to find a cure for this awful illness.
I see dementia at first hand when I am at work. It destroys lives, the lives of entire families. It destroys hopes and dreams, it takes away people’s homes and their savings, it takes away the parent’s inheritance to the sons and daughters. It breaks my heart every time I see it.
Do you know just how bad it is? How about not recognising your partner, but recognising a photo of them from 30 years ago? And a forensic memory from half a lifetime ago but no recollection of what happened five minutes ago? This, for many, is the end of life.
We used to call people with dementia unpleasant names. They were doodle-alley or senile, as if they were just pretending. Now we know it’s a bit more than that.
What’s worse than that is that we, as a society, don’t care enough about this to find a cure. We rely on “someone else”, charities, drug companies (who operate for profit) and, ultimately, carers, many of whom increasingly come from the third sector, the Thatcherite ideal, and so we don’t have to feel guilty. But we should feel guilty. Very guilty.
Charity, lest we forget, exists to pay for the things we deem not important enough to pay collectively through taxation. That is to say that the government has got the message, we don’t care.
This is not an easy argument when you consider that when people are confronted, personally and directly, with the grim reality of dementia, they usually have a different view.
Sir Jackie Stewart, for whom a £1 million donation is not even a minor dent in his fortune, faces the same problems as the man on Main Street. There’s no cure for Lady Helen Stewart, his wife of 59 years. There won’t be in her lifetime. But it doesn’t matter that a million quid donation is a dent in his fortune: it means he cares about life beyond Helen. It’s inspiring.
See a person alive outside but dead within. That is dementia for you. We will none of us live forever, but hopefully the ways of dying will be improved in the years to come. Dying in your sleep will become the norm, perhaps?
