TV presenter Fiona Phillips has announced she's battling Alzheimer's aged 62.
Fiona was told she had the illness a year ago after suffering months of brain fog and anxiety. She's now undergoing trials for a revolutionary new drug which scientists hope could slow or even reverse the illness for millions of sufferers in the years to come.
She said the disease has "ravaged" her family, after losing both her parents to Alzheimer's.
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Speaking to MirrorOnline she said: "This disease has ravaged my family and now it has come for me. And all over the country there are people of all different ages whose lives are being affected by it - it’s heartbreaking. I just hope I can help find a cure which might make things better for others in the future."
"It’s something I might have thought I’d get at 80, but I was still only 61 years old. I felt more angry than anything else because this disease has already impacted my life in so many ways; my poor mum was crippled with it, then my dad, my grandparents, my uncle.
"It just keeps coming back for us.”
Fiona kept her diagnosis a secret for 18 months after being worried people would "judge" and "label" her.
She said: "There is still an issue with this disease that the public thinks of old people, bending over a stick, talking to themselves. But I’m still here, getting out and about, meeting friends for coffee, going for dinner with Martin and walking every day.”
Her husband, TV’s This Morning editor Martin Frizell, 64, is helping Fiona at home by injecting her medication three times a day.
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