Why Dementia Sucks.

Hello friends, I'm afraid another serious post is upon us. Hopefully the posts following this will be far lighter reading, but this is an important topic, and is something that's shaken me to the core for the last few weeks.

On Wednesday 9th April, my family sadly lost my grandmother to Alzheimer's disease. She had been in hospital for a few weeks and her health had been deteriorating severely and quickly. By the end of it, we were just glad to see the end of her suffering, regardless of how difficult it was for the rest of us. I wasn't exceptionally close to my gran in the later years of her life, but she was always there, and before her dementia got the better of her, always brightened the room and brought a smile. I was shaken by her death more than I ever expected to be (not that I really knew what to expect, having never lost a close family member until now).

But this post isn't necessarily about my loss or my mourning. It's about the disease that brought it about. Over the past few months, I've done quite a bit of research into Alzheimer's and other causes of dementia. Dementia is a difficult term to explain articulately, but it's basically progressive damage to nerves in the brain, causing loss of memory, confusion and other symptoms which are all hard to watch someone experience. Here is a basic summary of the disease and its symptoms, or this video explains it all equally as well.

 But what I've come to realise is that regardless of how destructive it is and how big a scale it affects people on, there still seems to be a stigma of some sort around the disease. Whilst research and support organisations exist, they are nowhere near as well-known as organisations for the likes of cancer and other diseases. I just find this hard to believe and frankly, ridiculous, when dementia accountable for so many deaths. In less than ten years, over 1 million people in the UK alone will have some kind of dementia. And yet nobody in the media, in politics or anywhere else that would raise awareness seems to talk about it.

Fortunately, I have found an organisation that sparks some hope to the cause. What I want to do more than anything is to help break the stigma surrounding dementia and Alzheimer's, and to see a more public approach to tackling the disease as a whole. The comedy genius and all-round legend, Seth Rogen has taken a strong step towards making this happen. He and his wife have set up an organisation called Hilarity For Charity, in aid of Alzheimer's. He has also made a great effort to expose the disease to the American public and government. Here is a video of his speech to Congress on the matter. I urge you to watch it, because he truly hits the nail on the head.

So that's pretty much it. All I want to do is spread awareness in the hope that Alzheimer's and other causes of dementia become better recognised so that more people can be successfully diagnosed, sufferers and carers can have the level of support they deserve and to make the campaign against dementia as big as campaigns for other illnesses. Please do give these videos a watch, and if you're affected by any of this personally, I urge you to get involved in some way, whether that's by sharing your experience, joining in a charity event or even creating your own, which is something I hope and aim to do in the near future. 

Until next time, amigos

xoxox

(ps. I promise my next post will be something a little more smiley. Here's to hoping the rough times have come to an end for now!)