Two sisters among youngest in Britain to have Alzheimer’s after being diagnosed aged just six and 10
Their parents have described how the girls have tragically deteriorated into physical and mental wrecks after being struck down with childhood dementia.
TWO sisters are believed to be the youngest people in Britain to be diagnosed with dementia.
Emily Bushaway was just six-years-old when she was diagnosed with Niemann-Pick disease – a form of childhood alzheimenrs which affects just 700 people across the world.
Just seven years later parents Mark and Lisa suffered another blow when her sibling Sarah was diagnosed with the same condition at age nine.
Mark and Lisa became full-time carers for their daughters as they regressed, and they lost the ability to walk, talk and write.
The couple, both 48, have told of the heartbreak of watching their two healthy daughters deteriorate into physical and mental wrecks after being struck down with childhood dementia – a genetic condition.
The parents took Emily for tests after she began repeating herself and struggled to remember friends’ names.
Lisa said: “It’s such a cruel disease, one of the worst illnesses I have ever heard of. It’s robbed us of so much.
“If anyone developed dementia, we expected it to be me and Mark, when we reached old age. We never expected our young girls to need constant care.”
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The Bushaways are speaking out about the rare condition in a bid to raise awareness, following the tragic death of Emily aged just 21.
Emily’s sister Sarah, now 19, has a decreased life expectancy.
The disease has devastated Lucy’s family so much that even her belief in God has been shattered.
She added: “I used to have a faith, but having two children with this disease has stopped that.
“With one, you think you can manage, and they’ve been sent by God for you to look after, but two? That’s simply too cruel.”
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