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Dementia is not a living death – I’m very much alive | Letter
news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · 18:24
Willy Gilder thinks the Alzheimer’s Society latest ad campaign is a mistake and would like to see it withdrawn
The chief executive of the Alzheimer’s Society has sought to justify its new ad campaign, The Long Goodbye , by saying that it “tells the unvarnished truth about the devastation caused by dementia”. It isn’t a truth that I, as a person with Alzheimer’s disease, recognise. The ad shows a family mourning their mum, and saying that she died several times in advance of her actual death as she realised that she could no longer cook a family meal, or take part in social activities.
This idea of dementia being a “living death” reinforces the most negative stereotypes of my condition, and contravenes guidance for journalists drawn up by the society itself six years ago. I share a dementia diagnosis with the star of Die Hard, Bruce Willis. I prefer to try to Live Well, or as well as I am able. It dismays me that the country’s leading dementia charity seems to want to reinforce the stigma surrounding brain disease.
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