So Sad For Our Beloved Becks

Newlywed Becky had everything going for her until she was struck down with dementia

- Lindsay De Freitas

JUST a year and a half ago she was a full-of-life ski instructor zipping around the slopes, teaching well to-do families to ski at a luxury resort in Verbier, Switzerland.

The 32-year-old was also newly married to the man of her dreams and looking forward to buying a home and starting a family.

Becky Barletta had her whole life ahead of her – until it all came crashing down with one devastating diagnosis: dementia – a disease that usually only strikes people twice her age.

Now Becky is a shadow of the energetic, vivacious young woman she used to be. She spends her days blowing raspberries, putting objects in her mouth or wandering into people’s houses whenever she can give her carers the slip.

She needs round-the-clock care and has been given just five years to live.

Her rapid deterioration has stunned her family and doctors alike – Becky is the youngest case of dementia her specialists have seen.

“There have been so many tears since then,” says her dad, Allan Sharples. “She was so young with the whole world at her feet. She’d just got married and hadn’t even been on honeymoon.”

The first signs of Becky’s cruel condition, frontotemporal dementia, appeared in the months before she got married to fellow ski instructor Luca Barletta in October 2015. Her family and friends didn’t pay heed, putting her erratic behaviour down to wedding jitters.