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Our Dementia Diary: Academic’s story brought to life in new book
Rachael Dixey, Professor of Health Promotion at Leeds Beckett, charts her experience of her partner Irene’s dementia in her new book - ‘Our Dementia Diary: Irene, Alzheimer’s and Me’. The book has now been published by Medina Publishing to tie in with National Dementia Awareness Week.
Rachael explained: “The book started purely as a journal, a way of coping with my partner developing Alzheimer's. After showing it to Brian Daniels, who wanted to write a play about it, he suggested that it would be good enough to publish. This is quite a step from my usual writing - of scientific papers and the like - so it's a brave step and it feels very 'exposing' to write such a personal story. But I hope it might help anyone else going through it, or indeed, through any loss.”
Irene and Rachael had been together for nearly 30 years when Irene started to falter. She was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s in her early 50s.
‘Our Dementia Diary’ tells the story of how, with the dramatic deterioration in Irene’s health, Rachael turned from lover and soul mate to friend, carer, and finally, to single woman. Eventually, when Irene was too ill to remain at home, she had to move to a care home, where she spent the last six years of her life. When she died aged 66, the couple had spent half their lives together.
Her highly personal and intimate memoir was written over a period of years. Moving, and often heartbreaking, it charts the daily decline and inexorable loss of Irene.
With brutal honesty Rachael tells of love, loss, and life with Alzheimer’s, and raises serious questions about how our society cares for those who develop the disease, especially at a young age, and how it deals with those affected in the gay, lesbian and transgender community.
Rachael’s story inspired the play ‘Don’t leave me now’, written by playwright Brian Daniels, a reading of which was performed at Leeds Beckett on Tuesday 17 May at both Headingley and City Campuses and is pictured above.