‘Don’t ignore warning signs of Alzhemiers, whatever your age’
If your loved one starts to change beyond all recognition, there could be a medical reason for it
Jo Deeks
When her sweet-natured husband Steve started showing drastic character changes, it never occurred to Gloria Double that he could be suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
Steve was just 56 when he was diagnosed with the condition, after losing his job and having his wife start divorce proceedings. But now Gloria says he is largely back to the “lovely man” he was before thanks to the help he has received.
The couple, from Kedington, are backing a Department of Health campaign urging people to seek an early diagnosis from their doctor if a loved one is displaying the early symptoms of dementia.
Gloria first noticed the change in Steve’s behaviour seven years ago. He had always been a gentle, sweet-natured man, calm and placid most of the time, rarely upset about anything. But he started to become increasingly snappy and impatient, even aggressive at times.
She said: “He’d tell lies to try to cover up things he’d done and get cross with me when I asked him about it. Once he’d obviously dropped a vase and mended it, but when I found it and asked him how it happened he said he didn’t know what I was talking about. I began to doubt myself.” Eventually things got so bad between them that Gloria filed for divorce and Steve moved out.
Things went from bad to worse for Steve. He had worked as a paint-sprayer in a vehicle workshop since the age of 16 but his bosses noticed that he’d start on a car and then seem to forget what he was doing halfway through. After he lost his job it really set the alarm bells ringing, and although they were separated, Gloria finally persuaded him to go to his GP.
She said: “It was January 2008 and there was snow on the ground but he’d turned up for his appointment in a T-shirt. The doctor gave him a memory test and when he was asked what season it was, he replied ‘summer’.”
Steve was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s and referred to Adden-brooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, where he was put on a special drugs regime which Gloria is convinced has helped him to retain his long-term memory.
He was also able to move into a small bungalow owned by a housing association Havebury Housing, in the same village as Gloria and close to his daughter and grandchildren. Age UK Suffolk assigned him a social worker, Louise Diss. Sensors have been installed to remind Steve to switch everything off in the kitchen and to turn up his heating when it gets too cold. Others on the front and back door warn his carers if he leaves the bungalow unexpectedly or late at night. Steve is looked after by carers for five days a week and at weekends his family takes over.
Gloria’s advice to others in her situation is not to ignore the signs. She said: “It never occurred to me that Steve could be suffering from Alzheimer’s – I didn’t think he was old enough. But if your loved one starts to change beyond all recognition, there could be a medical reason for it, so do go to see your GP. Help is out there – you really don’t have to suffer on your own.”
