Yes, this is what it is. Dementia is the current untrendy terminal illness. Most people don’t realise or accept it is an incurable illness, but rather a disease that just robs us of our brain function, turns us into lunatics! It is not unlike being diagnosed with cancer, but without the ongoing support, without the research funding, without the public profile and the celebrities setting up foundations to raise money and awareness and specialist nurses or
carers to reach out into our dementia communities. It has additional bonuses… the stigma and silences surrounding this frightening and insidious disease are patent, effervescent even in the darkest of spaces. I speak out to break down the barriers of silence, to banish the shame and disgrace attached to an illness often regarded as socially unacceptable, to raise your awareness, to campaign and rail against the way our health system treats us, and finally in an effort to improve the experience of living with, and working with dementia. Current statistics state there are one thousand five hundred new cases of dementia diagnosed in Australia every week. Tonight I have the pleasure of attending a
wedding in Canberra with many of my friends and their friends and families. I am not sure how many will also be there, but I pray none of them are in next week’s 1500.