Robbie Williams 'can't prepare' for heartbreaking moment in mum's dementia fight

Robbie Williams is facing the heartbreaking reality that his mother may soon not recognise him. The pop icon revealed this week that his mum, Janet, is battling dementia.

The 50-year-old, from Tunstall, shared the news while promoting his upcoming biopic, Better Man. In a conversation with Hello! Magazine, he confessed: "My mum's currently got dementia - like my nan in the film - and my dad's got Parkinsons and can't get out of bed. So I'm in a different part of my life right now."

Dementia, which comes in various forms, involves the loss of cognitive functioning - thinking, remembering, and reasoning - to such an extent that it interferes with a person's daily life and activities. The condition affects over 944,000 people in the UK, causing their families to suffer as they watch their loved ones deteriorate.

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Port Vale fan Robbie is currently juggling a busy professional schedule with the imminent release of his film and an upcoming tour. He is also a father to four children aged between 12 and four, who will undoubtedly want to understand what is happening with their grandmother. Janet is well known across Stoke-on-Trent, not only for being Robbie's mum, but for her charity work over the decades.

The Express consulted Angelo Makri, Senior Knowledge Officer for Well Being with the Alzheimer's Society, about what Robbie could expect in the coming weeks, months and years and how he can best cope with it.

While offering advice on coping with a dementia diagnosis, he confessed: "I don't think you can ever be fully prepared for your parents forget your name, or to forget that they're your parent. I don't think there's anything you can do that will really prepare yourself."

Reflecting on the next steps for someone in Robbie's position, Angelo emphasised the importance of processing the diagnosis first. "I suppose the first thing to do - what I would say to anyone if they phoned me and said 'my parents just been given this diagnosis', I would always say, take time to actually process that."

He continued, advising on the need to gather information and take things slowly: "Gain as much knowledge as you can, as much information as you can, and really just try and take things one day at a time, one step at a time, because the type of care that someone is going to need may well vary day to day. People's capacity can fluctuate. People's symptoms can fluctuate. So it can be very difficult.

"A diagnosis like this there's always going to be a massive adjustment. So depending on the types of symptoms someone's having, and depending on what specifically they are having difficulty with, that will then determine what the next step is."

He concluded by discussing the tailored approach needed for each individual case: "So whether the carers need to be involved at this stage or whether it's more a case of looking at day centres or looking at technology in the home that can help. It really does depend on the person with dementia and what symptoms they're having, because people will have different symptoms."

Angleo, in explaining how to discuss his illness with his children, noted that there's no one-size-fits-all approach. "In the same way as how you would care for a person with dementia will be different for each individual, similarly talking to children will be different depending on their ages, depending on their level of maturity."

He advised: "Generally though we would say let the children know there's no right or wrong way to feel. Explain what's happening depending on the age and maturity of the children. You might use the word dementia, or you might not. You might say memory problems. You might say that the person is not very well.

"Explain the types of things that might be happening. It can be helpful to anchor what's happening with something a child might have noticed. So if you say, 'you know granny or grandad remember they forgot your name the other day, that's because of this condition that they have'. But it's always good to encourage children to ask questions and acknowledge what's happening. Acknowledge that it might be a bit strange, or things are different now, or the person might do or say things that are different to what they would normally say."

He also emphasised the importance of emotional support for kids: "One of the key things as well with children is going to be emotional support and letting them know that anytime they've got any questions, any time they want to talk, you're there for them, and you know, you will do your best to kind of ask questions for slightly older children.

"I think one of the things that can help is being around other people, so support groups. So there's that kind of element of being around peers who are going through similar things."

Further information and advice can be found on the Alzheimer's Society website, where Angelo plays a key role in providing knowledge.

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