Featured Image Credit: David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images/YouTube/GMTV2008
Topics: Celebrity, TV And Film, ITV, Health
Katherine Sidnell
Topics: Celebrity, TV And Film, ITV, Health
Fiona Phillips has revealed she’s been diagnosed with Alzheimer's.
The diagnosis came last year, with the ITV broadcaster suffering brain fog and anxiety before getting confirmation from doctors last year.
Despite her heart-breaking diagnosis, the 62-year-old has insisted that she’s ‘getting on with it’.
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Tragically, it’s not the first time Phillips has had experience of the debilitating condition.
Prior to her own diagnosis, she’d watched her grandparents, uncle, mum and dad succumb to the disease.
"This disease has ravaged my family and now it has come for me. And all over the country there are people of all different ages whose lives are being affected by it - it’s heartbreaking,” the former Strictly star told The Mirror.
Because of this, her reaction wasn’t one of sorrow but anger due to the impact Alzheimer's has already had on her life.
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Her diagnosis has also happened relatively early on, despite Phillips hoping that she would not experience it until later in life.
“It’s something I might have thought I’d get at 80,” she confessed. “But I was still only 61 years old."
Despite this, the 62-year-old remains hopeful that new treatment can be found, saying: “I just hope I can help find a cure which might make things better for others in the future."
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Phillips is taking part in a ground-breaking drug trial for a new Alzheimer's drug Miridesap.
It’s thought the new drug could help slow the effects of the disease and researchers at University College Hospital (UCH) are looking to recruit more people to test medication.
As the research continues, Phillips has been getting her husband Martin Frizell, who is the editor of This Morning, to help her with the medication.
"Poor Martin, he has been injecting my stomach every day, he has been brilliant,’ she revealed: "The drugs are brand new and they're expecting a lot from this and so am I."
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While they await the results of the trial, the broadcaster is trying to live life as normally as she can.
"I am just getting on with it, I'm not taking notice of it,” she told The Mirror, adding: “I'm just doing what I normally do. I don't want to not work, be sitting around playing with my fingers, or watching telly. I just like doing things."
Phillips has continued to write her column for The Mirror and is a regular panellist on ITV's Loose Women.