VIDEO: John Suchet reveals struggle to care for wife with dementia
FORMER TV newsreader John Suchet has revealed the anguish of caring for his wife who suffers from dementia, saying the disease has robbed him of the woman he loved.
In an emotional television interview, the broadcaster said since Bonnie, his wife of 24 years, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's three years ago "it's as if she has died."
The 64-year-old said: “The past we shared is a closed book to her.
“The Bonnie I loved has actually gone. It’s as if she has died. Dementia has taken her.”
There are times I want to bury my head in my hands
VIDEO: JOHN SUCHET REVEALS THE STRUGGLES OF CARING FOR SOMEONE WITH DEMENTIA
He said she no longer knows which families their five grandchildren belonged to and cannot get dressed on her own.
According to Suchet, it has also been months since she went out or cooked.
Until now the former newsreader had kept her condition a secret from all but family and close friends. He revealed the devastating situation had at times got so difficult he even had suicidal thoughts.
The former ITN stalwart, who currently presents quiz show Going For Gold on Five, said: “There are times I want to bury my head in my hands.
"When I persuade myself she would be better off without me because I’m crap at handling this. You have suicidal moments.”
Suchet said the first sign his 67-year-old wife was suffering from a serious illness came four or five years ago while they were waiting for a flight to France.
She went off to the nearby ladies toilet, but was unable to find her way back to her husband. On a later trip to the United States, she passed out in a restaurant.
Then three years ago she was referred to a neurologist in London, who diagnosed Alzheimer’s disease.
“It was a relief because I knew by then that it was something serious,” he said.
“I said: ’Don’t worry. Everything’s fine.’ And she believed me. Still does.
“The only good thing about this...disease is that it protects the person from what is going on.”
He contrasted Alzheimer’s with cancer, saying if she was suffering from the latter they could still be intimate and would be “figuring how to fight the bloody thing”.
Suchet added he now had some in-house assistance to help look after his wife at their London home.
Harriet Millward, deputy chief executive of the Alzheimer’s Research Trust, said: “By speaking so frankly about his wife’s experience, John Suchet has highlighted the toll dementia takes on the 700,000 people in the UK, and their families, who live with it.
“Dementia costs our economy £17 billion a year - £6 billion of which is absorbed by carers - and radical reform is urgently required.
“The long-term solution to our dementia crisis is to invest in research.
“Dementia research is severely under-funded in the UK, receiving eight times less government support than cancer.”
