Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Ninewells part of global drugs trial
NINEWELLS Hospital is to be part of a worldwide drugs trial aimed at treating a degenerative medical condition.
Lewy body dementia (LBD) shares many of the symptoms of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.
Actor Robin Williams — who died in 2014 — was posthumously diagnosed with LBD after an original diagnosis of Parkinson’s.
The six-month trial at Ninewells is being run by an American pharmaceutical company, with research also taking place in the USA and Germany.
Cormac Miller is one of four people to have been selected for the trial.
The 61-year-old, from Wick, will be taking two tablets a day of a new drug, which can’t be named for confidentiality reasons.
Speaking to the Tele, Cormac said he started to become forgetful in 2014, with further tests leading to the LBD diagnosis in September 2016, which he said was “devastating” for him, wife Christine, 60, children Kara, 38, and Jamie, 31, and granddaughter Emma, 13.
Cormac said: “After being told, Christine and I became very emotional. I then said ‘let’s just get on with what we can’.
“When we went to see the doctor he was straight-talking. There’s no cure and life expectancy is four-six years.
“He said I would deteriorate quickly, my thinking would be slower, there would be increased hallucinations, my thinking would be irrational and my memory would diminish in a few years.”
Cormac said his speech and walking have both been affected, adding that he becomes confused easily and suffers hallucinations.
He said he had initially been turned down for the drugs trial because he lived too far away from Ninewells.
However, he was eventually contacted and accepted.
He added: “I’m doing my bit with the tests and Kara is trying to do her bit by raising funds for the Lewy Body Society.
“My plea is that if you have not yet donated to the research fund, please do so as it could help someone close to you in the future.”
Professor Peter Connolly, consultant old-age psychiatrist for NHS Tayside, who is running the trial in Scotland, said: “There is currently no drug specifically to treat LBD. This drug may be useful for LBD patients on its own or in combination with drugs used to treat Alzheimer’s.
“It’s hoped the drug will bring about some improvement in patients or slow down the symptoms.
“Ultimately, we hope that a cure can be found for LBD and other forms of dementia.”
Kara will be taking part in the Tough Mudder at Drumlanrig Castle next month, the latest in a gruelling schedule of fundraising endeavours for the Lewy Body Society. To donate visit justgiving. com/fundraising/K-Coles.