Fiona Phillips is suffering from Alzheimer’s aged 62.
Fiona Phillips is suffering from Alzheimer’s aged 62
The broadcaster – whose parents were killed by the degenerative disease – received the news a few years ago after being stricken with months of brain fog and anxiety but has only now opened up about the diagnosis.
She told the Daily Mirror, for whom she writes a regular column: “This disease has ravaged my family and now it has come for me.
“And all over the country there are people of all different ages whose lives are being affected by it – it’s heartbreaking.
“I just hope I can help find a cure which might make things better for others in the future.”
It is understood Fiona is undergoing a potentially revolutionary trial with a new drug which experts hope will slow or possibly reverse the illness for millions of sufferers.
Former GMTV host Fiona added she thought she wouldn’t get the disease until she was in her 80s.
She said: “It’s something I might have thought I’d get at 80. But I was still only 61 years old.
“I felt more angry than anything else because this disease has already impacted my life in so many ways; my poor mum was crippled with it, then my dad, my grandparents, my uncle. It just keeps coming back for us.”
Fiona is being supported by her ITV editor husband Martin Frizell, 64, who she married in 1997 and with whom she has children Nat, 24, and 21-year-old Mackenzie.
She added it was a “b****y horrible” reality to face, especially after she thought the anxiety she was suffering was linked to the menopause.
After a course of HRT, her symptoms continued and she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.
She is now taking part in a trial of the drug Miridesap at University College Hospital, London.
Fiona’s dad Neville died in February 2012 from the condition, and her mum Amy was killed by the disease in May 2006 – with their deaths prompting Fiona to become a prominent campaigner for Alzheimer’s Research UK.
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