Yahoo News ITV star 'can no longer tie his shoelaces' in heartbreaking battle with dementia
Alastair Stewart, 72, can’t tie his shoelaces anymore as he issues a heartbreaking update on his dementia diagnosis. ITV star and news anchor Alastair revealed how his dementia prevents him from even tying his own shoelaces.
The veteran broadcaster said: “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." He told The Telegraph : "There’s no point feeling self-indulgent about it.
"I won’t condemn myself to an awful life in the short term." The 71-year-old was one of ITV’s flagship newsreaders for more than three decades and most recently presented programmes for the rightwing TV channel GB News.
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Stewart said he started feeling “a bit discombobulated” about six to nine months ago. “I wasn’t becoming forgetful but things like doing 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," he said.
He decided that there was something wrong [pointing to his head] “up here” and went to his GP. “I said I’m really worried I might have dementia, early onset dementia," he added, going on to say: “I had a scan and it was like a scene from Casualty or Emergency Ward 10, because the results come back and I had indeed had a series of minor strokes that are called infarct strokes.
“Not the big one … it’s like peppershots. The cumulative effect of that was that I had a diagnosis of early onset vascular dementia.” He said: “We’ve been married for nearly half a century, and, you know, your life partner, your lover, all of those descriptions that are personal and intimate, that person is reduced – I choose my words very carefully – almost to a carer.”
He added: “If you do think that there’s something wrong with you, go and see the GP. Listen to what he or she says. But also do remember that the people you work with and the people you live with and share your life with are the most important people in the entire world. And they are there if you’re lucky enough, as I was, to help you.”
