Richard Madeley, 62, fears he will have dementia but says he would ‘go down fighting’
RICHARD Madeley has revealed he fears suffering from dementia in later life but has insisted he would “go down fighting”.
The 62-year-old, whose mother had dementia prior her death, has revealed he panics every time he forgets something – and worries it’s a sign of the illness.
He candidly told Woman magazine: “The majority of people over the age of 60 fear dementia more than any other condition. I’m 62 (how did that happen?) and I’m certainly one of them.
“If it ever happens to me, I would want to meet it head on. I would want to go down fighting.”
The GMB presenter continued about his anxieties: “People of my generation are twitchy. We pounce on the slightest memory lapse or moment of forgetfulness and ask ourselves, ‘Is this it? Is this the start of something major?’
“Forgetting where we’ve put the car keys, how that Sunday night drama series we slavishly watched last year actually ended or the name of someone we were introduced to for the first time 30 seconds ago; it’s all clean gone.”
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Richard’s mum, Mary Claire, was diagnosed with dementia three years prior to her death in 2015.
She was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer at the same time.
Meanwhile Richard and his wife Judy Finnigan recently celebrated their daughter Chloe’s marriage to James Haskell.
The TV star prepared to walk his only daughter down the aisle by watching the film Father Of The Bride, Chloe has revealed.
She told Hello!: "I'm a daddy's girl and he was so looking forward to driving me to church - a tribute to our father-and-daughter road trips.
"He's just like me, sentimental and nostalgic. I even caught him watching the film Father Of The Bride.”
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