Meet Allen and Marie

Everyone has their own journey and their own story – and this is ours……

“Allen and I got married nine years ago in a beautiful ceremony – it was a lovely day – but three years ago our lives changed when Allen, a self-employed joiner, dropped a heavy oak table onto his head whilst renovating an old windmill and that’s when I noticed things started to decline.”

Marie Johnson, 50, and her husband Allen, 57, have been using the services of Dougie Mac since Allen was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and Lewy Bodies dementia – a condition which is considered rare in people under the age of 65.

Since then, Marie – who works full-time running her own hairdressing salon – has adapted their lives to cope with Allen having dementia at such a young age.

She said: “Allen is now a very, very different man to what he used to be. His personality has gone. He used to be fun-loving and would do everything in the house, now he isn’t able to do anything at all.

“The other day he popped a pizza in the oven and it was in there for two hours. He can’t dress himself properly – he doesn’t know what order to get dressed in. It’s incredibly sad to see – a grown man at 6ft 5in who can’t take care of himself properly. He’s lost all cognitive abilities and just doesn’t know what comes next or what order to do things in. For example, he will wash up – but doesn’t scrape the plates first.”

Since being diagnosed, Allen has been able to access a ten-week 1-1 dementia support service at Dougie Mac and also attends a Dougie Mac Dementia Services community group at St Luke’s Church in Clayton, with the focus being very much on music and singing.

“Allen loves the singing group as he likes to take part in the quiz they do and loves music so that is a great but apart from the help we have had from Dougie Mac – which we are very grateful for – there’s really not a lot of support in the community for younger people with dementia.

“I’m only 50 and Allen is only 57. You just don’t expect people to get dementia at such a young age. I just look at him now and just know things aren’t going to get any better – he’s not going to get any better – but at least we are getting support from Dougie Mac.”