The dementia timebomb:

[jimbo 111]

The dementia timebomb: People fear it MORE than cancer - yet it receives only a tenth of the funding
Dame Gill Morgan is chair of NHS Providers, representing hospital trusts
Says dementia research lags 25 years behind the progress made in cancer
Advances in drug development will be too late for 850,000 sufferers

People fear Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia more than cancer – yet dementia research receives only a tenth of the funding.
Dame Gill Morgan, chair of NHS Providers, said yesterday: ‘Dementia is, in my view, the cruellest disease.
‘It is a cruel disease because your family watch you declining, and they lose the person, but they keep the body.

English NHS trusts, said that advances currently being made in dementia drug development will come too late to help the 850,000 people currently living with the disease in Britain.
Speaking at the Royal Society in London, she said: ‘It is really important that we have research on drugs.
‘But those drugs are for tomorrow. What we need today is proper social care, better funding.
‘We need a cure tomorrow – but not at the cost of care today.’
Dame Gill, who is also chair of the Alzheimer's Society, said that relatives of patients often carry the weight of caring for their family.
Dementia costs Britain £26billion a year – about £11billion of which is spent by individuals caring for their relatives.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/a...cer-receives-tenth-funding.html#ixzz3x3t6M5DO

 

[Quilty]

After watching my mother suffer with this terrible disease this is now my worst fear. Cancer has a predictable prognosis. My father died of lung cancer. They said when he was diagnosed he had a year. He died a year and 6 weeks later. He got to say goodbye, he got to die in his bed. He spoke to me the day before he died, and told me what he learned about life

"You dont look back at your life and wish you spent more time at work"

The only thing about dementia that is predictable is the unpredictability. Lets hope that somewhere a research team is unlocking the secret. Only science can save us.

 

[Padraig]

Life is unpredictable, some people are presented with more challenges along the life's road than others. One fact is certain, we all die at some stage a by one means or an other.
Some loved ones are taken suddenly from us without warning with no opportunity to say our goodbyes .
Life is real, and the best we can do, is to share our unknown gift of time. It's pointless comparing one illness with another, it solves nothing.

 

[Cath1]

Timebomb

Interesting that there is media coverage about a dementia time bomb alongside recent news coverage about rates of dementia stabilising