Anna Richardson shares her family's dementia story and the battle they faced with her father's vascular dementia

One in 11 people over the age of 65 in the UK has dementia, and someone is diagnosed with the syndrome every three minutes.

It is Britain’s biggest killer and our generation’s biggest health crisis.

So what can we do to tackle it?

While charities are urging the government to make any dementia drugs “deemed safe and effective” to be made available on the NHS as soon as possible, an effective cure could still be a long way off.

Therefore, we need to try and slow the condition and treat those already affected. But with a rising caseload, and a rising healthcare bill, that is proving to be a tough challenge.

In a bid to inspire change and help tackle the crisis, Anna Richardson has decided to tell her family’s own dementia story and the battle they have faced dealing with her father’s vascular dementia, which affects more than 135,000 Britons, and is the second most common type behind Alzheimer’s.

Over recent years, Anna, who turned 54 last week, has not been afraid to raise awareness over health problems and how society deals with them.

In 2021, the TV presenter opened about her own struggles with menopause ‘brain fog’ and how it hit her confidence as a working woman.

Two years before that, the host of Supersize vs Superskinny, The Sex Education Show, Secret Eaters, Supershoppers Naked Attraction and Changing Rooms spoke of her sadness that her dad Jim, a retired Anglican canon, had been targeted by fraudsters who had “abused an old man with a brain injury”.

Anna has since opened up about her own fears that she will develop dementia and losing her memory like her “big, charismatic, stubborn” father.

“I really do fear not being cognitively capable,” she said.

“I see it in my dad and I see it in my parents’ friends. I just think, ‘There by the grace of God’.”

Anna, who was appearing on the Channel 4 show Can I Improve My Memory? at the time, described how Jim presided over her brother’s wedding 10 years ago.

She said: “I remember him at the altar going, ‘Mark, do you take this woman, Jo, to be your wedded wife?’ My brother was looking at him going, ‘It’s not Jo. She’s called Rachel’.”

Jim was living on his own in Dorset in 2014 when he suffered a couple of mini-strokes, a heart attack and then a major stroke within a matter of months.

Doctors later diagnosed vascular dementia, caused by blocked blood vessels to the brain.

Rachel Dupuy’s moving film sees his daughter not only share her personal story, but also embark on a nationwide journey of discovery, meeting other families living with dementia and hearing their stories and struggles.

With startling honesty, Anna explores the devastating truth of living with dementia – the love, life and loss, as she puts it.

She confronts the myths and social taboos surrounding the disease, and explores how we can hopefully one day prevent dementia with revolutionary new drugs that are providing hope for the future.