Extreme Knitting Redhead: GMTV

Monday, April 26, 2010

GMTV

It sounds glamourous to say you've appeared on GMTV doesn't it? Well, it doesn't come without a bit of hardship I can tell you! On Friday morning I got up at 3:30am, the taxi picked me up at 4:30am to get to Tower Bridge for 6am.

There were a few of us doing live interviews from 6:30am until 9:30am. The knights and their lady - they duelled relentlessly and ran around a lot, shouting!

Then there was myself and Rik. From left to right we have John, the lovely taxi driver from Hastings who drove me there and back and waited around for hours whilst we filmed, Fran Ridler one of the Press Officers for the VLM and Rik Guard.

So what we had to do was a series of 'teasers' where we stood next to Dan Lobb the presenter and gave a brief description of what we intended to do. These were just to get interest ahead of the actual 'spot' which lasted a bit longer. Sadly the spots weren't very long and none of us managed to get in much about our respective charities plus I didn't get to explain the link between my crocheting and dementia which was very important to me.

Inbetween shots we were allowed into the hotel restaurant for brekkie or coffee and there was the usual surreal mix of elite runners - (Deena Kastor was having breakfast at the table next to us), assorted Press Officers and a group of runners in fancy dress!

Rik's unique way of marathoning was to sing all the way round. He's a professional singer and he's written a song about his mum who suffered from dementia with the proceeds going to the Azheimer's Society. I don't know how he got on in the marathon but it certainly won't have been easy - sometimes it's all you can do to breath without having to sing too!

However, we were promised more time on the end spot at 9:25 and when my turn came I was so determined to mention the 850,000+ sufferers of dementia in the UK, the lack of funding for the Alzheimer's Research Trust and that each chain I crocheted was to represent the way dementia affects the brain that I didn't draw breath. I got most of it out though!

Then it was a quick dash home to get changed for work. By the time I got home form work at 6:30pm I was well and truly ready for a rest and it didn't seem 5 minutes until I was getting up for work the next day. Of course it couldn't be a nice easy day at work could it and instead of a nice relaxing day I spent all day on my feet, rushing around then it was early to bed for another early start ahead of the London Marathon.

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Mum's Story

In 1997 my mother, then aged 81, had a series of minor strokes. Shortly after that we started to notice behavioural changes notably memory loss and confusion over everyday items. We thought it was just old age finally catching up with her. Then she started wandering and had violent mood swings. Although she already lived with us it became obvious that she couldn't be left alone for long and so I left my job to care for her. The next few years saw a gradual decline into the blackness that is 'vascular dementia'. My normally placid mum became violent and aggressive. She had psychotic incidents where she would see imaginary people (children hiding in her wardrobe, Russians sitting on the stairs, women stealing her clothes) and she would shout at them and sometimes throw things too. She was so convincing that we used to go and check that there wasn't anyone there! When my sister died mum did not know who Judy was or that she was her daughter. There came a point when I suddenly realised she no longer knew that I was her daughter and this was a terrible time for me. In the last 2 years that she lived with us, life for us all became almost unbearable as she needed 24 hour care - she couldn't be left alone at all because she would either wander off or hurt herself, she never slept for more than 30 minutes at a time during the night, she became incontinent and incapable of doing anything for herself. Finally my husband and I realised that we could no longer provide her with the care that she needed and she went to live in a special care home where the team did a splendid job caring for her in the last few months of her life. There she lived a zombified existence unaware of who she was, what she was or where she was. It was heartbreaking. She died in March 2005, the day after her 89th birthday.

Thank you for taking the time to read mum's story and I hope you'll dig deep and sponsor me using the link below to help find a way of beating this destructive disease.