BBC viewers were left emotional watching the latest episode of Sort Your Life Out, as Stacey Solomon and her crack team took on a house in Scotland.
The household that this time saw all their possessions dragged out and laid out in a warehouse was that of married couple Gerald and Trish, who share three kids.
Ahead of the home transformation, Gerald told the BBC renovation show how he was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s seven years ago.
He explained to the cameras: ‘At the beginning I thought I was just getting older. I was forgetting things.
‘At the age of 55 after 18 months of poking and prodding, I was diagnosed with young-onset Alzheimer’s disease.
‘Within weeks of the diagnosis I was retired through ill health. I also had to hand in my driving licence. That was a huge loss. All my independence, gone.’
In the episode, the family were taken aback when their newly-renovated home was unveiled by Stacey and her team of organising whizz Dilly Carter, carpenter Rob Bent and cleaning expert Iwan Carrington.
The kitchen surfaces had been strewn with bits and bobs before, but the Sort Your Life Out team decluttered it all and showed off some newly installed storage areas, one of which was painted by a local artist with a poem Gerard wrote and filled with all his arts and craft gear.
Elsewhere in the kitchen, a block of wood Gerard had lying around had been refashioned into a wall nook for letters and papers to be kept in order.
BBC viewers reacted to the endearing scenes on X (formerly Twitter), with Kirstie sharing that the episode left her crying, adding: ‘Very close to home with Dad and his recent diagnosis. What a lovely family though.’
Another viewer labelled it a ‘devastating diagnosis’, while Simon H emotionally shared: ‘Having lost both grandmothers and my mother-in-law to dementia and Alzheimer’s, I’ve seen firsthand the devastation it causes.
‘Being diagnosed with early onset must be absolutely earth shattering!’
Statistics and facts about early-onset dementia
According to Dementia UK:
- An estimated 7.5%, 70,800 of the estimated 944,000 people living with dementia in the UK have early-onset dementia.
- Someone develops dementia every three minutes in the UK.
- One in two of us will be affected by dementia in our lifetime, whether that be through caring for a loved one with the condition, developing it ourselves, or both.
- 53% of people in the UK know someone who has dementia.
Early-onset dementia support groups and help can be found on the Dementia UK website.
Sort Your Life Out airs on BBC One and is available to stream on iPlayer.
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