I can't think of anywhere I'd rather be.
That's me at the back.
It's just glorious.
I get so annoyed with myself.
I'm having a bad morning this morning.
Oh gosh that was difficult.
I'm Pete, I'm not elderly I'm 65 I have uh
dementia, Alzheimer's disease to be precise
but I'm still pretty lucid and pretty coherent
most of the time.
From the second of my diagnosis uh I've had support from Alzheimer's Society
and so if we did have any questions
or any worries we could contact Dementia Connect and they would
help us.
Just looking through some old photographs of me
when I was in the Royal Air Force, joined in 1976.
This is a little path between the back
of the houses take me to the fields.
I suppose there could be a better place to be than out in the Northamptonshire
countryside at seven o'clock in the morning on a Sunday
for my fitness walk but uh wow.
Because of my dementia I tend to keep
notes everywhere.
Trouble is, I can never remember where I put the darn note.
I woke up this morning couldn't my I couldn't speak very well
sometimes that happens uh and and that what makes it worse
is knowing that it worries my wife so much
and and so I I try not
I try to keep quiet because I don't want to worry her but
that that worries her too uh be behind the the stuttering
uh my mind is intact and I I know
exactly what is happening to me and I am not able to do
anything about it.
Remember remember I just can't remember there's something that's stuck in my
mind it's a name it's a face it's a time it's a place it's a
something i just cannot find.
[Pete's mum]: Hello Pete
Hello mum I was just phoning to see if you were okay?
[Pete's mum] You keeping alright?
I'm not sleeping very well.
[Pete's mum] No
But I have very powerful dreams, I've looked and it's
called lucid dreaming and I never used to get it but since uh
Alzheimer's has come on uh yeah I I do.
I think I'm appreciating the sheer beauty of everything that's around me a
little bit more now that I'm not out in it so often.
Gosh it's good to be alive.