The youngest son of motor racing legend Sir Jackie Stewart has revealed how dementia has robbed his mum of her most precious memory – the day he was born.
Mark Stewart said that whenever Lady Helen, 82, was asked to share a favourite story, it was never about the glitz and glamour of motor racing or her friendship with The Beatles, Sean Connery or even the Royal Family. Instead, she loved to talk about her dramatic dash to hospital before Mark’s birth. But now she has no memory of what happened.
And Mark said watching his mum’s struggle is what drives him to support Race Against Dementia, the charity set up by his father to find a cure and new treatments for the disease.
Helen, who has been married to three-times Formula One world champion Jackie for 61 years, was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia nine years ago. Like so many other families with a loved one with dementia, Mark, 55, his brother Paul, 57, and their father Jackie, 84, can only watch as the devastating disease ravages both her body and mind.
Helen can no longer walk unaided, can’t dress herself and struggles to recognise the home where she lives or even members of her extended family. Mark said witnessing her lose the memory of precious family moments can be hard to bear.
He added: “When my mum first started showing signs of illness, we didn’t really know what was happening and we weren’t thinking dementia. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when my mum started to show signs of the condition but the reality is over time it takes more and more of the person you love.
"Now my mum can hardly walk and she can’t remember very much at all. She always liked to talk about the past but even that recently has started to diminish a lot.
“She used to love telling the story about how on the day I was born there was a storm and a tree had fallen on the road and they had to climb over the tree to get to hospital.
“But now she can’t remember anything. There’s a sweet spot in the day when she is really jolly, then there is a sort of sundown when she starts getting very confused.
“She’ll look around and say, ‘I don’t live here. This is not my house.’ You’ll see in her eyes when she spots family in all the photographs that are there but she’ll still say, ‘Are you going to drop me off at home?’”
Helen, who married childhood sweetheart Jackie after meeting as teenagers in Dino’s café in Helensburgh, was always close by her husband’s side throughout his racing career. She worked tirelessly supporting him behind the scenes, even acting as his stopwatch, timing his laps.
Mark added: “When we initially found out she had dementia, there was a very low period because none of us knew how to deal with it. Then I saw a change in Dad – he attacked it like he was back on the track. Dementia is the opponent and he’s determined to beat it.”
Jackie, who has dedicated much of his life to improving motorsport safety and raising awareness of dyslexia, which he was diagnosed with as an adult, founded the charity Race Against Dementia in 2016.
He wanted research into dementia treatments to echo the pace, precision and lateral thinking he was used to dealing with in Formula One. Race Against Dementia funds early-career scientists researching dementia in Scotland and abroad.
More than 55million people across the world are living with dementia, including more than 90,000 people in Scotland. The charity says in just over the time it takes to complete a pit stop at the Monaco Grand Prix, one more person develops the condition.
While Jackie’s career success means he can afford to pay for a team of specialist neuro nurses to provide 24-hour care for his wife, he knows most other families are not in such a privileged position.
He realises the charity’s efforts won’t provide treatments or a cure in time to help the wife he adores but he is using every ounce of energy to try to prevent other families going through the same ordeal.
Film producer Mark, who was born in Dunbartonshire but now lives close to his parents in Switzerland, said: “My father, like a true Scot, has never missed a good battle. On the race track and in his business career, he was always so focused.
“When he found out he had dyslexia, he wanted to do what he could to raise awareness, even going into schools and prisons, speaking to all sorts of different people about that. It’s the same with dementia.
“My father doesn’t have that many hobbies as such but he likes to have something to do and, once he gets his teeth into something, he will do whatever he can to make things better.
“He is a great believer that there are no problems – only solutions. He believes you just have to try harder and look at other ways of doing things.
“Being a racing driver meant my dad – and mum – got to meet and befriend a lot of people along the way who were at the top of their game. When Paul and I were growing up, there might be astronauts staying with us sometimes or rock stars and movie stars coming for dinner, as well as many CEOs of some of the world’s most successful companies. But his work with the charity is not only about raising money, which is a hugely difficult thing to do. It’s about raising awareness and getting people to think about dementia.
“Look at the cost dementia causes the health services now and, if this condition continues to affect more and more people as fast as the experts say it will, then we are in for a big problem. Race Against Dementia is now the official charity of Formula One but we can all help to do more. Every pound raised is so important.”
Mark was speaking just a few days after TV presenter Fiona Phillips revealed she had been diagnosed with young onset Alzheimer’s aged just 62. Jackie had a stroke earlier this year but Mark said nothing would put his father off fighting this disease, not even his own health issues.
To support the work of Race Against Dementia, see www.raceagainstdementia. com
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