Fiona Phillips is right: life needn’t end with dementia. In my case, it rid me of my fear

‘I would never have taken a leap of faith out of an aeroplane before dementia; now, each year I do something wacky to raise money.’ Wendy Mitchell wing walking. Photograph: PR

I used to be afraid of so much before my dementia diagnosis. Animals of all kinds, for example – the pure sight of them made the hairs on the back of my neck stand to attention, and my heart pound. My daughter has a cat, Billy, that she used to have to put outside if I visited; and I’d cross the road, full of fear, if I saw a dog on the pavement, even if it was with its owner and on a lead. But then dementia came along.

Dementia and cancer have long been the two most feared conditions – and for the over-65s, dementia is the most feared. I was 58 when I was diagnosed with young-onset dementia, just four years younger than Fiona Phillips, who has revealed she has the condition at the age of 62.