00:00When my dad had Alzheimer's, we obviously didn't know it was Alzheimer's, but his behaviours were getting quite strange and
00:08difficult and unusual.
00:09I don't know if you like the word strange, unusual, out of character.
00:13And my sister and I started having conversations, so she'd maybe been to stay with them, and she would say
00:19to me,
00:19oh, you know, Dad's not quite right.
00:22Because my mum, I think my mum was in a denial a little bit, because she was with it all
00:26the time, with him all the time.
00:27And then I remember going down to stay, and we were going to the supermarket, the same supermarket they went
00:33to twice a week for years and years and years.
00:34And I was in the car, and his driving was awful, just odd.
00:39So he was kind of going too fast around the country lanes, but then on a bit of dual carriageway,
00:44going really slowly.
00:45And then we got to a roundabout, and he went, he just stopped, and he went, oh, where do I
00:50go?
00:51And I was like, oh, he does this journey all the time.
00:53I was like, straight over, Dad.
00:55And he was like, oh, yeah, yeah, of course, of course, of course.
00:57And then on the way back, he went to go round the roundabout the wrong way, and I went, Dad.
01:01And, you know, I could tell he was a bit embarrassed, and I didn't say anything.
01:04And I remember phoning, I remember going to the back room in their house, phoning my sister and going, you're
01:10right, something's wrong.
01:12But then what do we do?
01:13What did you do?
01:14How did you broach it with him?
01:15Talked to my mum first, and she was a little bit, oh, no, you know, Daddy's this and Dad.
01:20And he's just a bit tired, because I think she didn't want to accept it.
01:24And eventually, it was her, really.
01:27It was her we had to persuade to say, I think Dad needs to go to the doctor.
01:31I'm not sure what this is, but I think there's something wrong.
01:34And eventually, that's what happened.
01:37And even that first time with the doctor, he went in on his own.
01:41And mum said to me afterwards, that was a mistake.
01:43Because obviously, everything the doctor was asking, my dad was going, no, I'm absolutely fine.
01:46Absolutely fine, because he thought he was.
01:48And it's interesting, because, you know, I'm an ambassador for the Alzheimer's Society.
01:51And we did a campaign a couple of years ago around Christmas, because it was at Christmas time, post-Christmas,
01:57the phone lines, their help phone lines go crazy, because people have suddenly spent an amount of time.
02:02All that time with their family.
02:03And they see it, yeah, of course.
02:03And they see it.
02:04So often, you're on the phone, aren't you?
02:06And parents do, they don't like to worry you.
02:08So even my mum, in later years, I'd find things out, you know, after the event.
02:12And she'd say, well, I didn't like to worry you.
02:14So when you're around them.
02:15Because you're there all the time.
02:16You know, you don't notice people changing if you're with them constantly.
02:19It's like babies, isn't it?
02:20And then I can speak to Rex and go, oh, my goodness, look how he's changed.
02:24Yeah.
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