Alastair Stewart shares heartbreaking health update and says 'I won't'

Alastair Stewart has shared a heartbreaking update on his dementia diagnosis. The veteran broadcaster who holds the title of Britain's longest-serving male newsreader, retired in 2023 after an illustrious 50-year career in television.

He later revealed he had been diagnosed with the cruel disease after an MRI scan revealed he had suffered a series of minor strokes, called infarct strokes. Now Alastair says he has been robbed of simple everyday activities like tying his shoelaces.

He shared: "I’ve covered the Gulf War and run the very first television Leaders’ debate, but now I can’t tie my own shoelaces or choose my own shirt."

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Alastair began his career at ITV 's Southern Television in Southampton in 1976 before moving to ITN in 1980. After leaving ITV in 2020, he joined GB News the following year. At the age of 72, he finally hung up his microphone in 2023. Shortly after his retirement, he announced his diagnosis with vascular dementia.

Speaking to The Telegraph, he said: "There’s no point feeling self-indulgent about it. I won’t condemn myself to an awful life in the short term."

While there are drugs available to slow down conditions like Alzheimer’s post-diagnosis, there is currently no treatment for vascular dementia, which is caused by reduced blood flow to the brain, damaging and eventually killing brain cells. He explained to former colleague Camilla Tominey he had been diagnosed with early onset vascular dementia.

"The headline story, and it is relatively dramatic, I suppose, is that about six, nine months ago, I began to feel one of my favourite words: a bit discombobulated," he said.

"I wasn't becoming forgetful but things like doing up your shoelaces properly - that's how I wear these lovely moccasins now - making sure your tie was straight, remembering that the call time for your programme is four o'clock and not five o'clock, not turning up early or late, and stuff like that."

Stewart said that, after explaining his concerns to his GP, a scan revealed he had experienced a series of "minor strokes that are called infarct strokes" - though he said he had "no idea" they were happening.