Gloria Hunniford: Dementia is "heartbreaking"
TV personality opens up about having a sister with the disease
Last updated 17th May 2018
Broadcaster Gloria Hunniford has told Downtown Cool FM having a sibling with dementia is "heartbreaking."
The TV star's sister Lena died of the condition.
"She would do things absent-mindedly like leaving the gas on, leaving the water running all the time or leaving the front door open, or worse trying to get out in the middle of the night.
"What's really, really heartbreaking is when they get to the stage where they don't really know you.
"In my case, knowing my sister for all these years and then you get to the point where she doesn't even recognise you."
And she told us families and carers often are not sure of the best way to care for loved ones:
"Although dementia patients might not remember something that happened five minutes ago, or wouldn't remember who their loved ones are, their memory seems to be quite acute, going way back to childhood.
"My sister would talk quite a lot about going home to mummy and daddy and she wanted to go and get her bicycle.
It's not just the person in the middle of it, it's coping with the right way of dealing with a dementia patient.
"Because sometimes we deal with it incorrectly, we try to correct them when they make a mistake or if they have a lapse or if they call someone the wrong name, our inclination is to help them out and to say 'no, no you told me that five minutes ago.
"But they don't understand that so everybody has to learn in a way how to deal with dementia."
Gloria is backing a new home in County Down to support patients with the condition here.
Copelands in Donaghadee will provide care and support for the elderly and pensioners with dementia.
The facility is due to open in 2020 and is based on a pilot in America.
The project also aims to team up with local community groups to help residents integrate.
Gloria says a similar facility would have helped her sister and her family:
"It's a great concept and I think it really brings us closer to having an environment in the latter part of your life that is more like a home.
"Care is the top of the list here and nobody really wants to be in a home in the end do they if we're being really honest?
"But in my sister's case, although my brother in law looked after her for a number of years with dementia but it got to the point where she became a danger to herself and to her husband.
"What I like about it more than anything is the fact that they really have gone away from the institutional type feeling of some homes.
"Each house will hold maybe ten residents...it's more like a home away from home and you're not in that institutional type environment."