Dementia & me.
Dementia.
My lovely Mum Carolyn was diagnosed with dementia early in 2018, having begun to show signs of disorientation and memory loss in 2017. She died in July 2022. As a result of talking frankly about her dementia ‘journey’ on air, I’ve had regular contact with the national charities Dementia UK https://www.dementiauk.org and Alzheimer’s Society https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/ I’ve also worked with, visited and talked to various dementia organisations in West Yorkshire, where I live, and Mum’s home, Hull.
I’m Honorary President of Leeds Hospital Radio. My first broadcast was on Kingstown Hospital Radio in my hometown Hull in 1988, and I’ve always been grateful for the start it gave me - leading to my first paid reporting on Viking Radio. I’m actively involved with events at my high school, Hymers College in Hull, I’m a former patron of Kidney Research Yorkshire and a former trustee of Leeds Civic Trust.
‘Mum and Me: The Dementia Diary’
In spring 2019 I began to record “Mum and Me: The Dementia Diary”. It was a weekly audio diary broadcast on BBC Radio Leeds and, from 2020, on BBC Sounds too. I care passionately about discussing the experience of dementia from an ‘ordinary’, non-specialist perspective. Each week I’d take off my radio presenter’s hat, speaking honestly, emotionally, sometimes humorously and always from the heart about what it’s like caring for a loved one who’s living with dementia. The diary prompted a very big response from listeners. In 2021 I was honoured with a Dementia Hero Award by the Alzheimer’s Society in recognition of the work I’d done to increase awareness of dementia: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p082m6hx
