Fiona Phillips has expressed fears that her 15-year career on morning television may have contributed to her health condition.
The 62-year-old television star, who revealed her Alzheimer's diagnosis in July, spent over a decade waking up at 3.30am to present ITV breakfast programme, GMTV. In a recent interview, Fiona said: "I ask myself why I got this dreadful disease. I wonder whether all the years of getting up so early when I was working on GMTV contributed to me getting Alzheimer's so young. Getting my diagnosis was devastating."
She is now participating in a drug trial, hoping it will slow the progression of the disease. Speaking to Woman & Home magazine, she said: "It involves a new drug and a placebo and I have no idea which one I'm on. When I went for my check-up in October, they did cognitive tests, which showed that I was in the same place as I was the previous year. I'm hopeful the drug is holding the disease where it is."
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The brave telly star is determined not to let dementia define her or stop her from living her life. "I've got big plans for 2024," she said. "I have made a plan to travel. Martin and I may downsize and spend the kids' inheritance travelling." Fiona is married to ITV's This Morning boss Martin Frizell and the pair share two children together.
In September, Fiona told the Mirror she was trying to carry on with her life as much as possible after Alzheimer's "slaughtered" her family. The TV star lost both mum Amy and dad Neville to the degenerative illness. Amy, who was a nurse before working in a department store, started developing the early onset of the condition at the young age of 53, before she died tragically in 2006, aged 74.
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Whereas her father was found to have the same condition in his early 60s, and he passed away in 2012, aged 76, after spending the end of his life in a warden-assisted flat, before moving to a psychiatric hospital. She said: "I'm living with it by not letting it ruin things. I am just carrying on as much as I can. It's when I talk about it that i can't quite believe I'm talking about myself.
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"I'm used to talking about it in relation to my mum and my dad having it, my whole family have been slaughtered by it. I'm not sure if the drugs are working or not I don't think anyone would know there is anything wrong with me.. but who knows? Would they?"
The January Christmas issue of woman&home is on sale from December 7. Help the Alzheimer’s Society be there for everyone affected by dementia this Christmas. Go to alzheimers.org.uk/christmas
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