It was horrible to see in later years – you say bye twice, Martin King admits

VIRGIN Media star Martin King says he believes dementia has become so common because people are living longer – but still has no idea whether he is destined to suffer from it.

The television presenter lost his mother Christina to the condition in 2019 and has seen a number of other relatives struck down with various forms of Alzheimer’s.

He’s unsure how long his mum was living with dementia but said the most horrible aspect for his family was that they had to say goodbye to a person twice.

He told the Irish Sun: “We don’t know how long she had it because when she’s opening presses and saying the cutlery is in here when it’s really the crockery you just pass it off at first, you let the mistakes go, so it’s hard to know when the symptoms first really start.

“But it was horrible to see her in later years, horrible for everyone.

“You really say goodbye to a person twice, that’s when they first get diagnosed and then when they pass.”

A study in the US recently found that whether and when your parents develop Alzheimer’s disease can impact your own brain health later in life.

Researchers found that when an individual’s mother, or both parents, had Alzheimer’s disease, the person had significantly higher levels of so-called amyloid plaque deposits in their brain that can hasten cognitive decline, compared with participants who had only a father with Alzheimer’s, according to study results published in JAMA Neurology.

Two years after Christina passed Martin made a documentary in which he tried to find out if the disease is hereditary as he feared it was something that he could suffer from in later years.

He added: “I wanted to know but after speaking to a number of people we just don’t know.

“I will say there is so much effort and research going into it and the hope is that they might be able to slow it down in and that’s the hope for now.

“It has become so common I believe because we are living longer.

“If you hear now that someone has died in their 60s you think ‘God, that’s so young’ but years ago it might not have been.”

Martin launched the Alzheimer Society of Ireland’s annual Memory Walk.

The event is a nationwide walk that will take place in 35 locations on September 22 and gives families, friends and those living with dementia the opportunity to come together to share old memories and to make new ones.

Martin said he is a huge supporter of the charity because of his own personal experiences but also hopes that when the country watched Jack Charlton go through Alzheimer’s they could witness what the condition was like for families to cope with.

He added: “Here was this big, strong man who was such a hero in Ireland going through something like this and it was so emotional to see. We were all moved by it.”

The ASI is urging people across Ireland to show their support for Memory Walk and register online now at www.memorywalk.ie to make and share memories on September 22 at a location near you.