Does Britt Ekland have dementia?

Maj-Britt was physically strong and healthy and lived with dementia for 20 years. When she died in 1995 at the age of 78, it was because the disease had robbed her of the ability to eat and doctors said feeding her through a tube would simply prolong her suffering.

express.co.uk - Britt Ekland: I'd rather die than live with dementia | Express.co.uk

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GETTY Britt Ekland is raising awareness of Alzheimer's disease

SUBSCRIBE Invalid email We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you've consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info Her daughter recalls: "We found she had undone all the seams of her clothes and fur coats, I assume with the thought of making them smaller or bigger." But Britt Ekland's mother was coming apart at the seams as a result of dementia. "She used to walk the streets and could not find her way back," says Britt. "People would call us and say, 'I saw your mum standing by the roadside'. She was lost and didn't know which way to turn." At first the family did not realise what was wrong. "My father, my three brothers and I put it down to old age. There was no name for it," says Britt. When doctors finally did give it a name, a decade after Maj-Britt had first shown signs of early onset Alzheimer's, the family was given no information and there were no support groups to help. That's why the iconic actress has spent the intervening years supporting charities in the UK and the US that aim to raise awareness of dementia. She used to walk the streets and could not find her way back Britt Ekland Much has improved since Maj-Britt was diagnosed. We now know dementia is not an inevitable result of old age, it's a disease of the brain and we have drugs such as donepezil and galantamine which can slow its progression. But there is still no cure and there is little hope of one on the horizon.

PH Britt with her mother Maj-Britt

The statistics are numbing: in the past five years there has been a 56 per cent jump in the number of people diagnosed with dementia, largely because we are better at identifying it. Every year 225,000 people develop dementia - one every three minutes - and one in three babies born this year will go on to develop dementia in their lifetime. It is set to be the 21st century's biggest killer. Families are at the frontline of care and an army of 700,000 carers provide £11billion a year in unpaid, and often unrecognised, support. "There will be someone in your family, your husband's family, a friend's family, who is going to get Alzheimer's. That's how it is. Dementia devastates lives. It doesn't care who you are; it could affect us all," says Britt. Curiously Britt, who is now 74, has never feared developing dementia herself. "To be honest, I never thought I'd live beyond 40 because I thought 40 was very old. Obviously you change your view when you're 40 but I never expected my life to go this far." And she has often said she would rather die than live with dementia. It's an uncompromising admission and Britt is quick to add that this is a personal view and she is not speaking for the dementia charities she supports.

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