DAME Barbara Windsor’s widower has called on incoming Prime Minister Andy Burnham not to treat dementia care like a “poor relation”.
Scott Mitchell said it is “disgraceful” how much the UK’s biggest killer is “ignored”.
Dame Barbara and Scott Mitchell visiting Downing Street Credit: PA
The legendary Dame Barbara as EastEnders as Peggy Mitchell Credit: Handout
Prime Minister-in-waiting Andy Burnham Credit: Getty
He also revealed he underwent tests for the debilitating disease last year, in a heartfelt interview with The Jattvibe.
“My message to the incoming Prime Minister Andy Burnham would be please make dementia a priority,” Mr Mitchell said.
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“Dementia is the biggest killer in the UK and has been for quite a few years now. One in two of us are going to be affected by it.
“I would like to ask the new Prime Minister to give us parity to get new information out to people, to let them know what is being done in the world of dementia – that there is hope.
“At the moment nobody feels there is hope. It’s really heartbreaking and there is part of it I find disgraceful.
“It’s not just the person living with the diagnosis going through a really difficult time – it’s the families, it’s the carers and a whole knock on effect. We cannot continue to treat dementia like a poor relation.”
Scott, who lost Dame Barbara in 2020, revealed he had concerns about his own health at the end of last year.
“I was feeling really out of sorts,” he added. “I honestly thought ‘have I got the onset of dementia coming on?’
“I thought back to when I saw the early signs in Barbara and her personality changing.
“I went to her neurologist and I had the tests…thank goodness my results all came back with nothing to worry about.
“But the reason I went for these tests is because had they come back with not such good news the first thing I would have done is volunteered to be on a trial.
“To me that is the only chance I would have had of trying to slow it down with the treatments that are available at the moment – which are getting better all the time.
“What worries me is so many people have no information about all of this.”
The campaigner said he was very grateful for funding set up in 2022 under Boris Johnson and to the current Government for recommitting to it.
But, he said more needs to be done to get information out to the British public to increase their chance of early diagnosis.
It comes as potentially thousands of sufferers could be given a chance thanks to the late EastEnders star.
A game changing new data tool – named after Dame Barbara – is being developed to help diagnose and treat dementia patients faster.
The platform called “BARBARA” will pool research, NHS services and new technology.
It stands for “Brain Ageing Registry for Biomarkers, Access to trials, Research and Adoption”.
And will help connect patients to clinical trials – which could help speed up discoveries in dementia research.
AI will comb the data to find clues and researchers hope it will be in use by next year.
The mega database is being spearheaded by a new charity called the Barbara Alliance.
Mr Mitchell added: “Babs would be proud of the work which is going on in her name. It’s a wonderful legacy.”
Lord James Bethell, former health minister and chair of the Barbara Alliance, said: “The science to beat dementia is already out there waiting to be validated in clinical trials.
“It is our mission to put that science to work by unblocking the barriers by creating the world’s best register of dementia data for companies that want to test their treatments.”
Dame Barbara Windsor Credit: BBC
