Fiona Phillips’ story is a reminder to cherish every precious moment

This afternoon I suspect I’ll add another to that short list. Thirty years ago Fiona Phillips and Martin Frizell were the golden couple of breakfast television. She presented GMTV, the nation’s biggest morning show, and he was its Editor. Life has not been kind to them. Four years ago, at the age of just 61, Fiona was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia. Martin has left his job and become her full-time carer. Together they have written a book sharing Fiona’s descent into the condition and his experience trying to look after the woman he loves, as he loses her day by day.

I worked with them both and this afternoon I’ll sit down with Martin at the Borders Book Festival to talk about their journey together into the fog of dementia. The book, Remember When, is a very difficult read. It tracks the way Alzheimer’s captured Fiona’s mother and father at an early age and every little indignity they faced along the way.

When Fiona first develops symptoms, she hopes it might be something else, but when the diagnosis comes, her experience with her parents leaves her in no doubt about what lies ahead. That is grim. The book is tough and unflinching but that is the nature of the disease and the couple have been painfully honest in the hope that this will reassure and help others living through it.

There are plenty of them. Latest figures suggest nearly a million people in the UK are living with dementia. Last week former Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow announced he is one of the latest. With an ageing population, the total number is expected to reach 1.4 million by 2040.

Despite the growing statistics, our care system is way behind the times. As Martin says in his book, we have dedicated hospitals and centres of excellence for cancer, heart disease and even eye problems but a century after it was first diagnosed, there is nothing for dementia.

Martin even says: “I wish Fiona had contracted cancer”. That sounds brutal but he means she would at least have had the chance of a cure and there would have been treatment pathways and support packages.

With Alzheimer’s there is nothing. No fight, no hope, no battle, no inspiring TikTok videos from people in remission or fashion spreads in magazines featuring people who have been given the all-clear. Instead you are pretty much left to your own devices, with only excellent charities like Alzheimer Scotland offering a safety net.

The one blessing is that much of the worst of it is lost on those diagnosed with the condition. Their awareness of what they are enduring is blunted by the very nature of it.

But there is no such comfort for those caring for them who see their loved ones gradually fading away before their eyes. “Bit by bit, it takes everything,” says Martin.

None of us can know what awaits us down the road and in the case of Alzheimer’s, that is probably for the best.

We desperately need more research and more specialist care and we need to remember to enjoy every precious moment of life while we can.