A mum-of-two who was given the “devastating” news that she has Alzheimer’s at the age of 57 wants to encourage others who have similar symptoms to push for a diagnosis, as she has since realised that “life can be rich” despite the new challenges she now faces. Jude Thorp, 59, who lives in Oxford, said she first started noticing changes in her cognitive abilities when she was working at The National Theatre in 2016.
Jude had extensive experience and loved her job, but she was struggling to complete easy tasks. I was not really playing my best game the last time I was at The National,” she said. It was a really simple show, I could do it standing on my head, and I was anxious and I didn’t know where I was. I was just very disorientated.”
Jude was experiencing bouts of memory loss, where she would often ask the same question multiple times, and she would forget significant conversations about plans. Jude also felt really fatigued and struggled with her speech and word-finding. She added: “It was frightening that I would do something and not remember that I had done it, particularly in a work situation.”
