‘Glenys is ceasing to be the person she was’
Former Labour leader and Islwyn MP Neil Kinnock has opened up on the effect Alzheimer’s is having on his wife Glenys – a former MEP – after her diagnosis in 2016. Political editor Ruth Mosalski reports
FORMER Labour leader Lord Kinnock opened up about his wife Glenys’ battle with Alzheimer’s.
He described the former politician as a “highly articulate, immensely lively, funny woman with some style, a brilliant cook, wonderful mother and grandmother” but said she is “ceasing gradually to be the person she used to be”.
Baroness Kinnock is a former teacher, who was MEP for Wales from 1994 to 2009 before serving as Minister of State for Europe and Minister of State for Africa and the United Nations.
The couple’s son, Stephen, is MP for Aberavon.
Asked during a Talk TV interview the toughest part of her diagnosis, Lord Kinnock said: “The inevitability of the knowledge that the change is going to continue.
“They are ceasing very gradually to be the person that they have been.
“Now your main concern is for what that means to them, here is a highly articulate, immensely lively, funny woman with some style, a brilliant cook, wonderful mother and grandmother and in all of those areas of her life, she has lost capability and of course, Glenys was one of those people who prided herself enormously on her capability. “She’s fine in many ways. “Obviously, Alzheimer’s sufferers don’t get better. But we are lucky that she’s retained some of her sense of merriment.
“I can give you an example. We went to supper at Rachel’s, our daughter’s, yesterday evening with Rachel and Stuart and the kids.
“I poured some wine for Glenys and she looked at it, she looked at me and then she picked it up and put it close to her eye communicating as she’s done for decades. She said: ‘God, this isn’t enough to wash my eye out with’.
“Stu and Rachel were falling about, it really was a moment of sheer merriment and that helps Glenys a lot and it certainly helps us.
“She gets away with immensely challenging situations, sometimes very dangerous situations, with this hint of mischief, which was a special magic for that to be ebbing, gradually being erased by this disease, makes it difficult for her, sometimes it makes her extremely frustrated and it is a challenge to me, but I deal with it.
“That’s what you do, you do that with love. It’s as simple as that.”
Asked how he was coping, Lord Kinnock said: “Well, I suppose I could rather tritely put it that she has supported me for 50 years and I’ve been helping her out for five. So, I’ve got a fair way to go to catch up. But it doesn’t really work like that, as people who deal with the reality of dementia will tell you, you cope with it in a way that is near to your normality, as achievable – if you’re very fortunate and secure in your housing, your family are understanding and supportive.
“That really does make it’s hardly a burden at all, frankly, for those things that are absent.
“If people are lonely, or if people are stranded or they don’t see family, friends, neighbours, they don’t feel they’re part of a community. It can be quite devastating and we deal with it and I think we deal with it very well.
“But we have assets, including the love of our family, which make it so much easier for us than it is for millions of others.”
Glenys was diagnosed after a family holiday to Kefalonia in 2016.
“I noticed to an extent that I hadn’t before, that she was slipping words, showing a degree of confusion, which could be put down to the fact that we’re in a strange environment and so on
“Then shortly after we came back from holidays, my son-in-law Stuart, who would see her every week, every 10 days, not daily as I was, said, ‘Do you think Glenys ought to have a chat with somebody because it appears to me she is getting slightly confused’ and so we proceeded on that basis.’
“We’ve got a marvellous memory service in Islington, and Camden with great doctors, wonderful professional nurses and they had a chat to Glenys to go through some questions and so on.
“After all that, in February 2017 she was diagnosed as having Alzheimer’s. She took it with equanimity.
“She was very grown up about it. To an extent she rode the blow better than I did, but we knew we had to get on with things and try to make arrangements around it.
“And of course, we are immensely fortunate that we’ve got the kind of resources that enable us to have really wonderful women helping Glenys out for four or five hours a day, every day, which takes a huge weight off me, massively helps Glenys and helps the whole family.
“For people who haven’t got those resources, life, I know, is very, very difficult and very challenging.”
Speaking during Dementia Action Week, Lord Kinnock was asked by host Tom Newton Dunn whether he felt a cure would come in time to assist her.
“There is a certainty about the advance of science that eventually treatments will be found for just about every condition.
“The problem is with dementia, with Alzheimer’s, is nobody is certain about the origin. What causes it, where it comes from?
“There are life conditions that we suppose can contribute but Glenys has always been fit, slim, she hasn’t smoked for 40 years. She’s not a heavy drinker and never has been. She’s had a balanced diet, still has.
“So, if they don’t really know or can’t really identify causes then it’s really difficult to discover cures.
“There are marvellous research programmes all over the world, including in our country. The Alzheimer’s Society is doing terrific work.
“As you say it’s their action awareness week, this week. And we know that someday somehow with this massive effort of brilliantly skilled people, and the amount of testing and research that’s going on, they will find a way to overcome it.
“But it’s going to be a long way ahead.”
The interview was shown on The News Desk, TalkTV, 7pm Monday to Friday.