I lost both parents to dementia... now I'm helping others

Why grieving daughter is determined to raise funds and awareness

- IMOGEN CLYDE-SMITH

A WOMAN whose parents died within months of each other after being diagnosed with dementia is now raising funds for more specialist nurses in a bid to ensure other families don't struggle as hers did.

Gail Smith, 57, from Royton, tragically lost both her parents in the same year and is raising money for the charity Dementia UK to help pay for more specialist dementia nurses, known as Admiral Nurses.

There are currently just 434 Admiral Nurses throughout the UK and the charity is aiming to increase that number to at least 1,000.

Gail's dad Kenneth, 84, died in April 2022, just weeks after being diagnosed with vascular dementia.

Gail had begun noticing changes in her dad 18 months earlier and said that as soon as she heard the diagnosis everything suddenly 'made sense! "When we spoke to the consultant all my dad's behaviour and the way he had become just made sense.

There had been a change in his personality and he'd started having poor mobility and poor eyesight.

There had also been repetitive conversations and he had become very fixed on certain things. It just all made sense," she said.

Just a few months later, on Boxing Day, Gail then lost her mum Eunice, also 84, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's and vascular dementia a year earlier.

Gail said her mum started to become 'forgetful' and 'very confused' in October 2021 and was referred to the memory clinic by her GP. It was at the clinic that Gail's mum was diagnosed with mixed dementia.