The man who thinks it is Christmas every day
Christopher Middleton suffers from a rare form of dementia, his wife explains to Rosie Taylor.
Imagine waking up on Christmas morning panicking because you’ve forgotten to buy any presents and have no idea how to feed all those people coming for lunch.
It sounds like a nightmare – but it is a daily reality for Christopher Middleton, who believes it’s Christmas every day.
The former Daily Telegraph journalist, 64, has developed frontotemporal dementia (FTD), an unusual form of dementia which affects the parts of the brain responsible for behaviour, language, problem-solving and emotion.
FTD accounts for only around one in 20 cases of the 850,000 people who have dementia in the UK, although it is one of the leading causes of the condition in the under-65s.
It occurs when nerve cells in the frontal or temporal lobes of the brain die, eventually leading to shrinkage of brain tissue.
Unlike Alzheimer’s disease, people with FTD tend not to suffer from memory loss but often display erratic behaviours like extreme rudeness, acting impulsively or binge eating, as well as losing the ability to communicate.
Terry Jones, the former Monty Python actor, revealed last year he was suffering from the condition.
In Middleton’s case, the disease has stripped him of his passion for writing, his ability to experience emotion and – most frustratingly for his family – made him convinced that every day is either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.
His wife of 30 years Sarah, 63, said: ‘‘People say: ‘Oh how nice!’ when I tell them every day is Christmas for Chris but it’s not nice at all.
‘‘Chris didn’t particularly like Christmas and it worries him. He is concerned about not having bought presents, what we’re going to eat, who is coming round and when they’re arriving.’’
Middleton was an awardwinning journalist who began his media career after graduating from Cambridge.
He wrote reviews and features for The Telegraph for nearly 25 years, as well as a number of other national newspapers and magazines.
Like many sufferers of FTD, he was struck by the condition while he was still relatively young. He was only 61 and still working when he first started displaying odd, emotionless behaviour in 2015.
At first, Sarah Middleton feared for their marriage as her normally affectionate husband seemed no longer to be concerned about her.
But when the couple’s three children, now 28, 26 and 23 years old, said they had also noticed their father’s strange behaviour, she took him to a neurologist.
Middleton was tested for Alzheimer’s disease and got the all-clear. But she was told her husband might have FTD instead.
He was finally diagnosed in May last year after a PET scan confirmed there was damage to his brain’s frontal lobes.
His preoccupation with Christmas started in January this year.
Sarah Middleton said. ‘‘He would come down every morning and start by saying: ’Happy Christmas.’
‘‘At first I used to say: ’It’s not Christmas, for Christ’s sake!’ After a while you just say ’Happy Christmas’ back and go along with it.’’
But unfortunately, believing it was Christmas was ‘‘not a remotely happy thing’’ for Middleton and caused him anxiety.
It led him frequently to go out shopping ‘‘for a turkey’’. When his wife cooked an everyday dish like spaghetti for dinner, he would get confused about why they weren’t having turkey.
Unlike the earlier stages of other types of dementia like Alzheimer’s, he also has no awareness that he has the condition. He can no longer process anything involving a sequence – even a task as simple as making a cup of tea or using keys to unlock a door can be impossible.
Sarah Middleton, who is remarkably stoical about her husband’s illness, bathes him and helps with his personal care. But she held back tears as she explained the worst part of the condition by far was losing their emotional relationship.
‘‘The absolute hardest thing is not being able to talk to him. I miss him so much,’’ she said.
‘‘I wish I could talk with him about how awful it is and how much we’ve lost, but I can’t talk to him about anything because there’s nothing there. This is absolutely not what we were imagining for this time of our lives.’’
A carer comes for one hour a day to help, but otherwise Sarah and the extended family look after him at their home in west London.
Full-time home care for someone with dementia usually costs in excess of £1600 per week.
NHS continuing care funding exists for some people with longterm medical conditions but the definition of who is entitled is vague.
A promised green paper on social care, which could ease and clarify the situation for families like the Middletons, has been repeatedly delayed and is now due to be published in the new year. – Telegraph Group