Fiona Phillips wanted her book to inspire and encourage others with early-onset Alzheimer’s – now as it’s about to hit shelves her mission has been tainted with a tragic irony
Fiona Phillips is set to help and inspire thousands of people after bravely opening up about her battle with early-onset Alzheimer’s in her new book.
But, according to her husband Martin Frizell, there’s one poignant tragedy behind the long-awaited release: She no longer remembers writing it.
The former Mirror Columnist and GMTV host was diagnosed aged 61 in early 2022 and has spent the the past year writing her memoir to help others going through the same ordeal feel less alone – and to inspire a greater understanding of what it is like and why more research is needed.
Fiona, 64, had movingly written about her fears for the future in earlier chapters of the book, admitting she sometimes feels a thought slipping away and tries “chasing it like a £5 note that has fallen out of your purse on a gusty day. ” By the penultimate chapter Martin, 66, reveals she has deteriorated significantly and cannot hold write anymore.
READ MORE: MARTIN FRIZELL: The heartbreaking day my wife Fiona Phillips didn’t recognise our own son HOLDING PIECE DO NOT PUBLISH
In fact she has no idea that she has even written the book, or that is being released on Thursday and sometimes still believes no one knows about her illness.
Martin writes in Remember When – which comes off embargo today – about the poignancy of missing a woman who is still there, but not at the same time.
“Im afraid Fiona no longer remembers that she is writing this book,” he says. “She is no longer the independent woman I fell in love with, but sometimes she is as stubborn as she has always been,” he writes. “Part of her is still the Fiona she told you about in the early chapters of this book, but much of her now is not. I miss her. I miss my wife.”
Martin is so proud of what she’s done to raise awareness since first going public with news of her diagnosis in a series of exclusive interviews for The Mirror in July 2023. Just like the spike in discussions about early-onset Alzheimer’s around the release of the book , there was another swell of public awareness at the time of her Mirror pieces. Even so Martin reveals that a lot of the time Fiona still believes people have no idea she is ill.
He says: “Fiona doesn’t seem to acknowledge that people know she is unwell. She has done so much to raise awareness of this issue and yet now forgets she has done so. In one way that seems very sad, but in another, maybe that’s just Fiona at her most fantastically independent and stubborn – still insisting she doesn’t need people knowing her business, she doesn’t need their help and definitely doesn’t want their pity.”
Both Fiona’s parents and several close family members had suffered badly with the disease. Her parents were affected in very different, but equally disturbing ways. Doctors explained it hadn’t been inherited from her parents as such, but they had passed down other genetic traits made her more ‘predisposed’, or rather more susceptible to get it. Fortunately Martin and Fiona discovered their boys, Nathaniel, 26, and Mackenzie, 23, were not at the same increased risk.
That doesn’t mean it’s been any easier for them to watch what they mum, the one-time vibrant and confident GMTV star, was going through. ‘It’s tough for them. They see their mum like this and it’s very upsetting,” says Martin. “But what choice do we have but to keep on going?’
Former Mirror columnist Fiona isn’t doing any interviews around her book and Martin is keen to let her words speak for themselves. In an early chapter, she poignantly reveals how she’s worried about forgetting the little everyday moments she shares with her sons.
Speaking of her desire to be her former self, she wrote: “I want to watch Chelsea beat Arsenal 3–0 at home. I want our son Nat to come home on leave from the Army and give me one of his bear-like hugs. I want our youngest son Mackenzie to bring me a cup of tea and a biscuit when we sit watching TV together. I want to be me.”
Sadly – as Fiona knew when penning those words – it’s only going to get harder and harder. She admitted how she had spent years trying to convince herself her low mood and brain fog was caused by something else – first, long covid and then the menopause. It was actually a menopause specialist who was ultimately the one to suggest they consult a neurologist.
Remember When: My Life With Alzheimer’s by Fiona Phillips, (Macmillan), is released on July 17
READ MORE: Fiona Phillips hasn’t cooked for years and ignores her designer clothes as she battles Alzheimer’s
Source: Mirror
Leave a Reply