“You have to be pretty resilient.”
Viewers have been left in awe after Helen Rochford-Brennan’s appearance on The Tommy Tiernan Show.
The global dementia ambassador spoke in-depth about living with Alzheimer’s and her work campaigning for people with the condition.
Helen was 57 when she first got the “earth-shattering” diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer’s.
“It’s called early-onset and to get a diagnosis and it is very difficult, I understand, to identify in the beginning because I was working and a busy woman,” she said.
“So it was difficult to get a diagnosis but when I got the diagnosis, of course, it was earth-shattering and I was in Galway and I was driving back to Tubber and I was trying to think what I was going to say to Sean [husband] and Martin [son].
“And all that kept coming up in my head was maybe in an undisclosed amount of time I may not remember them or remember all the memories we shared along the way.”
"So what happened yesterday is pretty grey."@Tommedian asks global dementia ambassador, Helen Rochford-Brennan about living with short term memory. #TommyTiernanShow pic.twitter.com/y0YwODexAz
— RTÉ One (@RTEOne) January 29, 2022
She continued: “It is difficult to live with it but it is livable with but you have to have strategies too.
“I think that is what has sustained me, to be honest with you, working really hard every day getting out and getting out in the fresh air and meeting people.
“You have to be pretty resilient and in particular, in the last year and a half I have to be quite resilient because I was isolated in you’re home.”
Helen went on to say that more support is needed for people suffering from the condition in Ireland – and that being diagnosed is not the end of the world.
“When we’re diagnosed first it is important to remember until that moment comes, that you are really advancing to try and live and do the things we always did, that if you need support you get support to help you to do the things.
“Which has been a big issue in this country when it comes to funding because we’re not supported to stay at home, because the policy for homecare in Ireland as it stands is take a shower and take your medicine.
“So as long as I am clean and lipstick is on and take my medicine, that’s grand. That’s not good enough. We need support to live at home as long as we can and have that choice.”
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Aideen McQueen – Faith healers, Coolock craic and Gigging as Gaeilge
