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John Humphrys interviewed author Terry Pratchett last month on BBC Radio 4. Pratchett, aged 60, spoke candidly of his attitude to being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. His words, we thought, were inspiring to anyone facing serious illness. Here is an edited extract:
John Humphrys: Until JK Rowling came along Terry Pratchett was Britain’s bestselling author. His fantasy fiction based on the strange Discworld has made him a very rich man. He has been honoured by the Queen and won the Carnegie Medal for literature. He has everything – except his health. First he was diagnosed as having had a stroke, now it’s been confirmed as Alzheimer’s. With his typical dry humour he has said, “I am not dead. I will of course be dead at some future point as will everybody else. For me this may be further off than you think. It’s too soon to tell.”
JH: About nine months ago you had what was diagnosed as a stroke. But it wasn’t a stroke.
Terry Pratchett: Actually stroke was how it became, as it were. I’d had a couple of bad years, no doubt about it. My father was diagnosed with cancer. My parents lived a long way away and there were all kinds of those Clapham Junction periods – everything happening at once. I had to deal with his death and also the fact that my mother had some years previously had a stroke, which meant that her speech was seriously impaired – she’s still alive I am very pleased to say. I was involved in lots of travel and sorting out other problems and on top of it all I was trying to keep up my writing schedule and do international tours.
That’s how I ended up at Addenbrooke’s Hospital. My GP, God bless her, realised it was really getting bad. Fortuitously the doctor who examined the scan knew about a variant of Alzheimer’s, PCA, which basically involves the back of the brain rather than the front. It affects motor skills and vision. But I’m perfectly coherent and in memory terms I’m about the same as any other 60–year–old.
JH: The thing about Alzheimer’s, of course, is that you don’t get better…
TP: No, there is medication that can slow it down. In my mind’s eye it seems to make little connections. I’m on one of the leading makes of drugs, Aricept. When I say it seems to blow the fog away, other people with Alzheimer’s know exactly what I mean. But it’s hard to describe. It’s like the difference you get in your behaviour on a dull day and a nice sunny day. Can’t quite put your finger on it but it’s just that much better. Or, it may be that my wife gives me every damn supplement under the sun – they turn up in an eggcup at breakfast time.
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