TV presenter Ruth Langsford says she tries to “live in the moment” with her mother who has dementia, as she called for more to be done to speed up diagnosis of the condition.
Langsford, who grew up in Surrey, said she wanted quicker diagnoses to allow people who have dementia and their loved ones to access more timely care and support.
The This Morning and Loose Women presenter made the plea having looked after her 94-year-old mother Joan, and having seen her father Dennis’s experience with dementia before his death in 2012.
She told BBC Radio Surrey: “I live in that moment with her because as soon as I walk out the door she doesn’t remember that I have been.”
Langsford added: “The hardest thing is getting a diagnosis. Once you know what you are dealing with you can start to accept what is happening.
“It’s about awareness. Dementia changes all the time and not everyone’s is the same.”
Langsford said that she was thankful as her mother “still knows who I am”, but that she had also struggled with the “heartbreaking” experience of her father’s dementia diagnosis.
Ruth’s mother Joan also cared for Dennis before his death at their family home in Cornwall, before they later moved to be closer to Ruth.
A report released by the Alzheimer’s Society, for whom Langsford is an ambassador, showed that the average dementia patient can wait three and a half years between initially seeing symptoms and receiving a diagnosis.
Michelle Dyson, chief executive of the charity, said: “Dementia care in the UK is stuck in a system of delay, denial and neglect.
“In the digital age of instant answers, people are still waiting far too long for a diagnosis of the country’s biggest killer. That would never be tolerated in cancer care, yet for dementia it has become routine.
“At every stage, people are missed. Symptoms are missed, diagnosis is delayed, and support often comes too late to be that lifeline so desperately needed by people with dementia and their loved ones.”
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