Arlene Phillips worries that she might get Alzheimer’s too (Image: ITV)
Strictly Come Dancing star Arlene Phillips has emotionally admitted that she “wouldn’t want to go through it” if she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. The 82-year-old BBC star watched her dad, Abraham, suffer with the disease and said that she would make a decision about her own mortality if she ever faced the same diagnosis.
Her father, a former barber, started displaying symptoms of the illness a decade before when Arlene was in her late forties – trying to make tea in the kettle, leaving empty pans on a lit stove, looking confused at his daughter’s home near his flat. She was juggling demanding work on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s revamped Starlight Express in the West End, whilst simultaneously raising two daughters, Alana, now 45, and newborn Abi, now 34. Now, Arlene has voiced her concerns about the disease, disclosing she would consider Dignitas if diagnosed. “My friends and I talk about this a lot. I think if I had Alzheimer’s I’d like to go to Dignitas,” she said. “So many people are against that, but it would be my decision. I don’t ever want my daughters to go through what I went through.”
Arlene Phillips cared for her dad (Image: undefined)
Arlene looked after her father during his final years and has now revealed the anguish of witnessing her father Abraham deteriorate from Alzheimer’s, passing away at 89 in 2000. She said: “I’ve watched someone go slowly, slowly, slowly from smart, snappy, bright to their every thought vanishing and becoming a non-functioning human being.
“It’s like watching a train going into a tunnel and by the time it emerges on the other side, it’s completely transformed. It’s heart-wrenching to have them gaze at you with no hint of recognition. You wonder, ‘What about all the times you embraced me? When you conversed with me? When you enjoyed me reading to you?’ All vanished, yet someone has to feed you to keep you alive.”
In a conversation with The Times, she shared: “Dad always used to tell me, ‘When I get old, I want to be like an animal, to wander into the forest, lie down and drift off. ‘ But he wasn’t granted that. Before work, during my lunch break and immediately afterwards, I’d dash to Dad’s with his breakfast, lunch and dinner. I attempted to arrange Meals on Wheels but he wouldn’t allow anyone else in.
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The BBC star said that she would not ‘want to go through it’ if she was diagnosed (Image: Getty)
“Then late at night, I’d return just to ensure he was in bed and safe,” she confided to The Times. “I was at sixes and sevens. It was a very challenging period.”
Her partner, set builder Angus Ion, whom she encountered while filming Freddie Mercury’s I Was Born to Love You video, offered assistance. “But dad only wanted me,” she said.
Recent studies highlight a hidden health crisis among the UK’s 5.8 million unpaid caregivers, with over half reporting a deterioration in their physical or mental health due to their caregiving duties. This is why, during last week’s Caring for Caregivers week, Arlene urged carers to make their own health a priority.
At the time, Arlene exclusively revealed to The Mirror: “Caring for a loved one is one of the most difficult roles anyone can take on, both mentally and physically. Millions of unpaid carers work tirelessly, sacrificing their own needs to care for others, forfeiting sleep, their own hobbies and socialising due to their responsibilities.”
