Veteran news reporter Alastair Stewart has given an update on his health issues following his recent dementia diagnosis. The former ITV, ITN and GB News frontman revealed his condition in September this year.
He stepped down from ITV News in 2021, before taking a position with GB News. He announced his retirement earlier this year – then revealing that he had been diagnosed with dementia.
Alastair Stewart issues health update
In a piece for Saga Magazine, Alastair described the issues he currently faces in his battle with dementia.
“We sit at the kitchen table and do spot-the-odd-one-out exercises, word searches and – the thing I find most difficult – looking at a jumble of shapes on a page, then trying to reproduce them in a drawing on the following page,” he said.
He then went on to describe how he felt upon receiving his diagnosis.
“My immediate reaction was terror at those two words, strokes and dementia, although I remained super-calm (while saying a rather strong expletive in my head). As someone who loves language and has made my career from it, there is no getting away from the fact that when a professional looks you in the eye and says: ‘You’ve got dementia,’ it’s a shocker, no matter how much you are prepared for it.”
Alastair Stewart reveals ‘soul-destroying’ dementia struggle
He continued to talk about the impact dementia has had on his daily life, and in his marriage to wife Sally Ann Jung.
“It is demeaning and soul-destroying, and she comes to it from a position of enormous calibre and talent,” the former GB News presenter said, before detailing how it was Sally who first identified that he might be unwell.
However, the family remain positive, in spite of Alastair’s struggle. He revealed his short-term memory isn’t “quite as sharp as it used to be” and added: “People sometimes ask if I feel frightened about what the future holds. I don’t, although maybe I should. I’m certainly apprehensive and concerned about the prospect of deterioration. But I’m incredibly confident in my family: whatever nature and medicine throws at me; we will tackle it together. I feel so incredibly lucky.”
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