Extreme Knitting Redhead: This what I'll be doing tomorrow.......

Saturday, December 13, 2008

This what I'll be doing tomorrow.......

Tomorrow is the Hastings marathon which will be my 5th and final marathon for the year bringing my total to 16. I can hardly believe it actually! The weather today is vile, with gale-force winds and lashing rain, but it sounds as if it will clear by tomorrow. Fingers crossed anyway.

There was an article about it on BBC South East today during the week.

The article about Christmas without mum appeared in Best magazine this tuesday, so that's a bit more publicity for the Alzheimer's Research Trust which is good, plus Mike and I made an appearance together on ITV Meridian last week.

It's interesting that Fiona Phillips appears on the cover of the magazine (albeit for a totally different reason on this occasion) as her mother suffered from Alzheimers and she is a spokesperson for the Alzheimer's Society.

3 comments:

Carol said...: Good luck! I'm hoping the weather breaks for you.; December 14, 2008 at 4:57:00 AM PST
Shan said...: Yes, indeed good luck.

And it's nice to know that those bloody "7 pounds slimmer instantly" headlines are a transcontinental problem.; December 15, 2008 at 12:46:00 AM PST
Susie Hewer said...: Thanks Carol and Shan!

Shan, I agree that those headlines are so annoying and I'm sure they make a lot of people very unhappy with their body image.; December 15, 2008 at 11:56:00 AM PST

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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.