“I’m slipping away a bit at a time… and all I can do is watch it happen”.

Terry Pratchett is speaking out about his Alzheimer’s (which I first mentioned on my other blog back here, so read that post if you’re after more background) in the Daily Mail… and while it’s hard to read for a fan, you really should read it.

“But Alzheimer’s is me unwinding, losing trust in myself, a butt of my own jokes and on bad days capable of playing hunt the slipper by myself and losing.

You can’t battle it, you can’t be a plucky ‘survivor’. It just steals you from yourself [...] What is needed is will and determination. The first step is to talk openly about dementia because it’s a fact, well enshrined in folklore, that if we are to kill the demon then first we have to say its name.

Once we have recognised the demon, without secrecy or shame, we can find its weaknesses.

Regrettably one of the best swords for killing demons like this is made of gold – lots of gold.

These days we call it funding. I believe the D-day battle on Alzheimer’s will be engaged shortly and a lot of things I’ve heard from experts, not always formally, strengthen that belief.

It’s a physical disease, not some mystic curse; therefore it will fall to a physical cure. There’s time to kill the demon before it grows.”

Best of luck Terry… hopefully that article will become the snowflake that causes the avalance.