Pauline Quirke’s family has shared a poignant update on her health as the Birds of a Feather actress continues her battle with dementia. Diagnosed with the condition in 2021, they remain uncertain about precisely which stage of the illness the 66-year-old has reached, though they say: “She’s still funny, she’s talking, she’s happy.”
Her husband, Steve Sheen, and son, Charlie, revealed to BBC Breakfast that they were initially in “disbelief” when she received her diagnosis. Steve explained the earliest warning signs emerged in November 2020, when Pauline struggled to read a script, reports the Express.
He said: “She started reading it, and she phoned me on that day and said, ‘The words are not going in’. That’s where it started.” Following the doctors’ confirmation, Steve said: “We looked at each other and went, ‘Can’t be, it’s long Covid. Got the flu’.”
While the family “don’t know” which stage Pauline has reached, her son Charlie said: “That’s the problem; no one tells you.
“My mum knows exactly who we are. Every time she sees all of us, she smiles, laughs, says ‘I love you’, and says ‘hello’.”
Steve added: “Unfortunately, we are not in the state where we can do much about it. Just take every day and try and take the best moment out of that day you can.
“It’s so gradual that for the first year, two years, you’re thinking. Ah, she’s alright.
“Now, we’re three or four years in; it’s a little bit different. This is why awareness is important. We didn’t know how long it lasts or how long you have with it, or how bad it is or how quick it is.”
Charlie explained that the condition “progresses and changes every day” and the couple are “forever learning” about it.
Symptoms of dementia
Dementia symptoms may include problems with:
- memory loss
- thinking speed
- mental sharpness and quickness
- language, such as using words incorrectly, or trouble speaking
- understanding
- judgement
- mood
- movement
- difficulties doing daily activities
People with dementia can lose interest in their usual activities and may have problems managing their behaviour or emotions.
They may also find social situations difficult and lose interest in relationships and socialising.
Aspects of their personality may change, and they may lose empathy (understanding and compassion).
A person with dementia may see or hear things that other people do not (hallucinations and hearing voices).
Because people with dementia may lose the ability to remember events or not fully understand their environment or situations, it can seem as if they’re not telling the truth or are wilfully ignoring problems.