Race Against Time

Formula One legend Jackie Stewart set up his charity Race Against Dementia last year to fund research into new treatments for dementia. Grace Ma finds out why the race to find a cure is top priority even as his wife battles the illness

- Grace Ma

IT STARTED WITH HIS WIFE forgetting things three years ago. Jackie Stewart thought nothing of it—until Helen got into an accident. “Another driver found her, trapped inside her upside-down car. There was no other car involved,” says the former three-time Formula One champion. “She didn’t knock her head and was conscious throughout, but she couldn’t remember a thing.”

They went for a check-up at the well-known Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota in the US and the devastating truth was revealed: Helen had dementia, and there was no cure. The family, including their two sons and nine grandchildren, had to adjust to their mother and grandmother not remembering their names and unable to do simple tasks such as walking to the bathroom by herself. As Stewart watched his once-sharp beloved, who could time his laps accurately to the millisecond using only a stopwatch, deteriorate each day, he decided he was not going to sit on the sidelines and do nothing about it.