Dementia ‘dulls’ Billy
SUPERMUM Yvonne Birch is hoping to take on the world’s best Spartan racers later this year if she heads to America for the world championships.
The Drysdale community are getting behind Ms Birch, who has been invited to the event, by fundraising to send her to Lake Tahoe, California.
The mum-of-three, 51, has spent months training for the event which includes a series of obstacles over a gut-busting 20-kilometre course.
Since Ms Birch’s first Spartan race in 2014 she has completed 13 races across Australia and claimed 10 first place titles in her age group.
She’s also won two 12-hour relay Spartan races.
Ms Birch is the only Australian female in her age group who has won an invite to the world championships for a chance to share in the $125,000 in cash and prizes on offer.
Donations to send Ms Birch to California can be made at:
https://chuffed.org/project/ get-yvonne-to-spartan-worldchampionships COMEDIAN Sir Billy Connolly is suffering from dementia associated with Parkinson’s disease.
The Scottish comic’s close friend Sir Michael Parkinson made the sad admission during an appearance on British lifestyle show Saturday Morning with James Martin.
According to The Sun, Connolly “no longer recognises close friends”.
The Scottish comic went public with his diagnosis five years ago, but now Parkinson has admitted it’s starting to take its toll.
The legendary chat show host recalled a recent meeting with the 75-year-old and said: “The sadness of Billy now is that wonderful brain is dulled.
“I saw him recently — he’s now living in America — and it was very sad, because I was presenting him with a prize at an awards ceremony.
“We had an awkward dinner together because I wasn’t quite sure if he knew who I was or not.
“But we were walking out after the presentation to go down and have our picture taken, and he turned to me and put his hand on my shoulders.”
Connolly was diagnosed with the long term degenerative disorder after having surgery for prostate cancer, and went public with the news in 2013.
“The doctor said to me, ‘You realise this isn’t curable?’ and I thought, ‘What a rotten thing to say to somebody’,” Connolly said.
“I always thought he should have said, ‘You realise we are yet to find a cure?’ to put a little light at the end of the tunnel. There’s a lot to be said for that.”