E

VER the professional, Ruth Langsford has learned to keep a stiff upper lip on screen. But last December, the bubbly TV presenter – best known for her regular presenting slot on ITV’s This Morning, alongside her husband Eamonn Holmes – fought back tears as she interviewed Emmerdale actor John Middleton about his character Ashley Thomas’ heartbreaking battle with dementia.

Comforted by Eamonn, Ruth – whose father passed away in 2012 after his own battle with the disease – was visibly moved by the storyline.

“They did it so brilliantly and what they gave it was time,” she explains.

“We saw the decline of Ashley and little things that other people might not notice, but it’s your loved one so you think, ‘He’s behaving very strangely, he wouldn’t normally do that’, and that’s why it upsets me.

“It’s like watching my dad looking very confused and frightened,” she admits, having first revealed her family’s struggle on the show’s sofa back in 2007. “You lose that person, even though they’re physically there in front of you.”

Today, 57-year-old Ruth is an ambassador for the Alzheimer’s Society (“I was very keen to keep getting the message out there”) and has recently joined forces with Care UK to launch the A Helping Hand guide – which aims to support carers, after figures show more than a third neglect their own wellbeing due to their responsibilities.

“It is sad but not surprising to hear about the pressure family carers put on themselves when looking after a loved one,” she says. “My mum looked after my dad for 10 years as his primary carer before it got too much for her, and a guide such as this would have provided some help and comfort for us at a difficult time.”

The Loose Women host hopes the tool, which provides key information on the rights of carers, the help they’re entitled to and advice on respite or permanent residential care for their loved one, will start a conversation.

“Don’t be afraid to ask the (Care UK) staff questions because they are there to help and this will be behaviour that they’ve seen a thousand times,” she says.

“It’s good to know that other people are experiencing it – that’s why I always want to talk about it, to say, ‘Don’t feel isolated. It’s an awful thing, I won’t deny it’s an awful thing, but you’re not alone’.

“Every conversation we have is another step forward to it being more widely understood.”

This means teaching the next generation, too – as the Singapore-born star has with her and Eamonn’s son, 15-year-old Jack.

“From a very young age I had to explain to him what dementia was