First signs of early-onset dementia as Sue Radford reveals devastating diagnosis
First signs of early-onset dementia as Sue Radford reveals devastating diagnosis
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Sue Radford was in tears when she revealed her friend's devastating dementia diagnosis on the show last week. The star of Channel 5's 22 Kids and Counting, 48, worried her family when they found leaflets for early-onset dementia, with Sue later explaining that her lifelong friend had been diagnosed with the condition.
Early-onset dementia refers to dementia with symptom onset prior to age 65. This condition may occur due to various different causes, including degenerative, autoimmune, or infectious processes. The most common form of early onset dementia is Alzheimer's disease, followed by frontotemporal dementia, and vascular dementia, with Alzheimer's disease accounting for between 40 and 50% of cases.
More than 70,800 people are estimated to be living with early-onset dementia in the UK. Symptoms can start as early as 30 - although it's typically diagnosed much later, between the ages of 50 to 64, according to Dementia UK. Sue was in total disbelief when she told her husband, Noel, about her friend, who is the same age as her. The father-of-22, who initially thought the dementia leaflets were for his wife, was equally shocked as he told his spouse: ''It is devastating news.".
Sue said: 'You kind of think, don't you, that it's something you get when you're maybe 70, 80 - it's not something you think of in your late 40s, is it? 'It's knocked me for six. I feel like 'Wow, that could happen to anybody, couldn't it?''. Speaking to the Mirror, an NHS doctor said early-onset dementia can often be misdiagnosed, explaining: "Young onset dementia can often be misdiagnosed as others things like stress, menopause, depression or attributed to ill health. It can affect people in different ways and doesn't always present as a memory problem at first.".
