Like dementia, mental illness is also untrendy, redolent with stigma and inner shame, but in most cases is not terminal. I was sitting in a taxi travelling to a hotel in Canberra yesterday and had two interesting conversations. Firstly, the driver recognised me from my story in The Big Issue!  Then, after discussing the high-profile people of the cover page of that issue, Maggie Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, and hearing from the driver how unusual it was they had died of dementia, he went on to tell me that the incidence of dementia in Europe is much lower than in western countries because… and wait for this
one… Hitler had killed all of the people with mental illness in the asylums in Europe, and therefore helped to reduce the incidence of dementia! To say I was stunned is possibly an understatement, but to say I became more inspired to speak out is also true. No, dementia is not a mental illness. And if it was, and I had it, I’d still be ok to speak about it. My time on the podium today speaking at the Fight Dementia Campaign March, which so far has not been covered by any news channel this morning, now, seems much easier.