The husband of Coronation Street star Julie Goodyear has revealed the pain of watching his beloved wife “slowly fading away” after her dementia diagnosis.
Scott Brand has shared his experience as part of a new Alzheimer’s Society campaign, featuring a TV advert voiced by British actor Colin Firth.
The advert, titled The Long Goodbye, illustrates the harsh reality of the disease’s progression – causing loved ones to “die again, and again, and again”.
Brand said: “I miss the fun-loving wife that Julie had always been – the larger-than-life personality that brightened up everywhere she went, and the smile that lit up every room.
“All of this is now slowly fading away and it’s extremely painful for me to watch this deterioration.
“Julie now struggles recognising people and everyone she meets is called ‘Scott’.
“Not being able to spontaneously go out as husband and wife, holding hands as we stroll along, going for meals together and going shopping – all these losses for me symbolise the Long Goodbye.”
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Shadow of her former self
Goodyear played Bet Lynch, the no-nonsense landlady of the Rovers Return, on Coronation Street for more than 25 years.
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The former actress, 81, was renowned for her leopard-print clothing and glamorous looks both on and off screen, but her husband said dementia has caused a lack of interest in her appearance.
“Julie has always been extremely glamorous, going nowhere without her makeup.
“But now the lipsticks and make-up go unworn, and clothes are no longer of interest, especially the leopard print,” Brand said.
Image: Goodyear played no-nonsense landlady Bet Lynch for 25 years. Pic: PA
Brand is Goodyear’s fourth husband, and they married in 2007.
‘I wasn’t coping’
He revealed he initially “refused to accept any support” after Goodyear’s diagnosis before realising “I couldn’t do it by myself”.
“I had to give up work to become Julie’s full-time carer,” he said.
“I wasn’t coping and needed to seek support.
“Caring for Julie is my priority, but my health was being affected and as a lone carer I felt it was ‘killing me’.
“Julie had always dealt with the finances but now she cannot even recognise the value of money,” he added.
Image: Goodyear appeared in Celebrity Big Brother in 2012. Pic: PA
“I was suddenly thrown into having to sort out all the household affairs, something Julie had always managed with ease and perfection.
“It was like being thrown into a new world of having to do everything by myself.
“I would advise anyone going through this journey to accept help straight away.”
Kate Lee, chief executive officer of Alzheimer’s Society, said: “This campaign seeks to tell the unvarnished truth about the devastation caused by dementia and it is very much informed by people affected by the condition.
“The loved ones of people with dementia often describe it as a ‘living grief’ as, bit by bit, the disease’s relentless progression causes part of the person to die…again and again and again.
“But there is hope.
“Alzheimer’s Society, through its support services, is there for people affected again and again as they face the grim reality of the long goodbye.”
Dementia is the name for a group of symptoms associated with an ongoing decline of brain function, according to the NHS.
The condition can affect memory, thinking skills and other mental abilities.
It is “pretty surreal”, Academy Award winner Reese Witherspoon admits, finding herself at the top of The New York Times bestsellers list.
When I meet the actress alongside her co-writer, best-selling author Harlan Coben, overnight the pair have learned that their thriller is now at number one.
He jokes: “I was texting her last night and saying you’ll now have to call yourself number one bestselling novelist, forget about Oscar winner!”
Image: Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben told Katie Spencer about their novel Gone Before Goodbye
As one of the most successful authors in the world, Coben has sold over 80 million books to date, while for Witherspoon this is new ground.
Not content with running a hugely successful production company responsible for a string of hits, as well as one of the most successful book clubs in the world, she explains she felt compelled to give writing a try.
“People want you to stay in your lane… as a creative person I think it’s impossible to just choose one kind of life.
“Creativity is infinite and who I was as a creative person when I was 20 is very different from the person I am now at 49.”
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Gone Before Goodbye, a thriller about a talented surgeon who finds herself caught up in a deadly conspiracy, is the result of Witherspoon daring to put her head above the parapet.
Image: Witherspoon says she felt compelled to give writing a try
Coben admits he was “a little wary” at first.
“I don’t co-write novels but when she made the pitch and started talking about it, I was like ‘dang that’s good, we can do something with that’.”
While countless celebrities work with ghostwriters, Coben says: “I said to her from day one ‘it’s only going to be you and me in here… no third person in here, I don’t do that’. So every word you [read] comes from Reese and me.”
Image: Coben has sold over 80 million books to date, while for Witherspoon this is new ground
Witherspoon explains: “He was like ‘if we’re going to do this, it’s going to have to be at a really high level because people going to expect a lot, so our bar was really high.”
“I said to her, in the beginning, novels are like a sausage,” Coben laughs. “You might like the final taste, but you don’t want to see how it was made and Reese got to see the full sausage getting made here.”
When it came to writing, Coben says they “fell into a rhythm right away”, working together in three-hour stints, “back and forth with a yellow legal pad – what about this? What about that?”
Image: Coben says they ‘fell into a rhythm right away’
Witherspoon says it “feels really deeply personal” to have their work now in print.
“Usually, as an actor, I walk into other people’s worlds and it’s already set up… but this was creating the whole world with Harlan and just from beginning to end feels very personal.”
While the story seems an obvious fit for being adapted to the screen, perhaps with a certain blonde actress in the leading role, Coben says that was never their intention.
“The biggest, biggest mistake novelists make when you write a book is to say ‘this would make a really great movie’. A book is a book, a movie is a movie, and we both focused on wanting this to be just a great reading experience.”
Given that their collaboration is already selling in big numbers, will the pair team up again to write a second?
Witherspoon says: “Let’s just see what people think of this one first.”
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Associate professor of neurology Dr Laura Stein told Sky’s US partner NBC News: ” The most well-described risk factors include a predisposition [family history of aneurysm], high blood pressure, cigarette smoking and inflammation.”
She went on to explain that most fatal ruptured aneurysms are in the brain, killing about one in three patients.
“When it’s a blood vessel that’s in the head and it bleeds, there’s a much higher risk of having a very bad problem just because the brain is enclosed in a fixed space,” Dr Stein added.
Low-risk aneurysms are monitored by doctors for growth or abnormalities, and there are a series of potential treatment options for those considered dangerous.
Elsewhere in The Kardashians clip, Kim admitted that her ex-husband Kanye West will be in her life “no matter what” because of the four kids they share together.