Dame Barbara Windsor has 'tremendous energy'

13 August 2019

Dame Barbara Windsor "looks wonderful and has tremendous energy" despite her ongoing battle with dementia.

Dame Barbara Windsor

The 82-year-old television personality has been battling the illness since 2014 but her close pal Christopher Biggins - who has known her for over 40 years - said the star has a fantastic long-term memory so they have been reminiscing about the past during his visits.

He told the Daily Mirror newspaper: "When I'm with Barbara, I don't have sadness or tears because she would see that and I don't want her to. So I'm always upbeat with her. The last time I had lunch with her was three weeks ago.

"She looked wonderful, she had tremendous energy and we laughed a lot. But she asked me 'what are you doing?' eight or nine times because she'd forgotten my answer. Forgetting my answers each time was very sad. But I'd only show that sadness after I'd left her.'

"I'm so lucky, because being such a strong character, she always knows who I am. Although her short-term memory is not so good and she might forget what she did earlier in the day, her long-time memory is fantastic. So she's really entertaining when we talk about the old days. She can remember what I'd forgotten a long time ago."

The former 'EastEnders' star is being looked after by her husband Scott Mitchell - who recently had to bring in carers to help him take care of her as her condition worsens - and Christopher recently revealed that despite her illness, she is still enjoying life.

Christopher said the 'Carry On' actress even managed to dance, sing, and entertain at Scott's father's funeral.

Speaking to The Sun newspaper's Bizarre column: "Scott told me a sweet story. When his father died she went down there to support Scott and at the Shiva, which they have at the Jewish faith, she was tap dancing and singing and entertaining the women.

"It was just like she came to, for a couple of hours, to give her bit to her husband's father. It was just wonderful. She got wonderful applause."

Meanwhile, Scott recently said he was "thrilled" at the "impact" Barbara's dementia story has had on other sufferers.

He said: "I'm surprised, and I'm just thrilled that it's had that kind of impact. Because that wasn't the reason we went public, we went public because I couldn't hide it any longer from people. Because Barbara always gets people coming up to her and it was beginning to be quite obvious."