‘Part of you dies as well’: the toll of caring for loved ones with dementia

Dave Shepherd at home in Devon: ‘Alzheimer’s is a horrible disease. It’s continuous; you watch your loved one slowly getting worse and worse.’ Photograph: Jim Wileman/The Guardian

Dementia does not only affect elderly people. There are more than 55 million people living with the condition worldwide. Every year, nearly 10 million more develop this neurodegenerative disease.

But almost every one of those with dementia has someone who loves them: someone whose own life will crumble as they are forced to watch their loved one succumb. Someone whose own life will be slowly erased as the condition wipes out a lifetime of shared memories from the brain of their partner, parent or friend, destroying their ability to experience emotions and changing their personalities.