THE parents of a 39-year-old man who suffers from the most aggressive form of dementia will appear on a television programme to show the illness can strike anyone at any time.
Gareth Wilmot was 36 when he was diagnosed with fronto-temporal dementia with Pick's Disease.
Gareth was a film fan who had appeared as one of the giants in Jack and the Beanstalk with Richard Attenborough. Before he became ill he had a partner and a job as a teaching assistant. Now he needs 24 hour care, lives in a care home and has lost the ability to speak and to concentrate.
His parents, Graham and Lesley, of Hope Avenue, Goldthorpe, have made it their mission to highlight the illness and dispel the myth that it only affects older people, and have been interviewed for an ITV show called Real Lives.
** The full story is in the Barnsley Chronicle newspaper, dated July 3. **
