The shocking age shows why state-of-the-art services are available in the city.

Sara Mitchell, right, the Plymouth Community Healthcare lead on dementia services, said: “Recently we had two gentleman aged about 40 and a woman who was 42. Generally speaking it’s 65 and over.

“But we’ve had some very young people recently.

“We’ve seen rates increase in the last five years and we expect that trend to continue as we all live longer.”

Dementia care in Plymouth has three strands – a memory service, a complex care team and the Edgcumbe ward at Mount Gould Hospital.

Ms Mitchell explained: “The memory service sees patients who are referred from GPs with significant memory problems diagnosis.

“Then they will be seen at fairly regular intervals and monitored and see how their dementia progresses.

“Medication can slow the process down but the deterioration varies massively from person to person.”

Following on from that, as the dementia develops, the complex care team will become involved.

Sara continued: “The team will provide support work and work with care homes, carers, families, the individual themselves.

“It’s about managing the risk at home so that people can stay their as long as possible.”

Inevitably, many patients end up having to stay in Edgumbe for a more complex assessment of their needs.

From there, they most likely go into residential care.

Tragically, unlike most illnesses, there’s nothing anyone can do to stop the onset of dementia.

Sara explained: “If people are going to develop they tend to. There’s not much you can do to stop it.

“All you can do is stay fit and healthy, use your mind well and the minute you do start noticing problems with your memory you get to your GP and you get started on medication.

“The patient group varies so hugely. We see people from all walks of life, it’s completely indiscriminate.”