Jessica Redmayne, a recent addition to Home and Away, has talked candidly about her mother’s dementia diagnosis and how it has altered her “perspective on the world.”
As Harper Matheson, Redmayne recently joined the cast of Home and Away. Although her episodes have not yet aired on Channel 5 in the UK, she is currently starring in the serial opera in Australia.
In 2014, Redmayne disclosed details of her mother Tina, who was diagnosed with early-onset dementia, in an interview with The Daily Telegraph.
“Everyone has their s**t, and this is ours, Dad told me. It altered the way I saw the world. It’s so difficult to realise that people would eventually forget who you are and that I am her daughter,” Redmayne remarked.
“She eventually came to the realisation that I was her child, but she still knew my name,” she went on. She didn’t realise she had children; she still believed I was her best friend.”
Dementia is a neurological disorder that impairs an individual’s capacity to think clearly, remember objects and people, and cause confusion and difficulty performing daily chores.
In Australia, Redmayne is presently leading Dementia Action Week, which takes place from September 18 to 24 and aims to increase awareness of the condition.
ITV reporter Alistair Stewart recently talked about receiving a dementia diagnosis of his own, saying that it happened after he started feeling “a bit discombobulated.”
While he was wearing these beautiful moccasins, he said, “I wasn’t becoming forgetful, but little things like tying your shoelaces correctly, making sure your tie was straight, remembering that your program’s call time is four o’clock and not five o’clock, not showing up early or late, and stuff like that.”
Julie Goodyear of Coronation Street was diagnosed with dementia earlier this year, while Emma Heming Willis, the wife of Bruce Willis, discussed her husband’s illness last month.
