There was this terrible feeling of injustice. Mum was only 61 when she died... she never got to see me waltz or present the Proms
SHEWOWED audiences on Strictly Come Dancing when she came fourth with her pro dance partner Anton Du Beke and has been lighting up screens presenting the BBC Proms for the past 11 years. But despite her many career highs, Katie Derham is in a reflective mood as she reveals the injustice she still feels at losing her mother Margaret, who died of earlyonset dementia, at such a young age.
Diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in her 50s, Margaret died aged just 61 when the TV presenter was 33 and an anchor on ITV News.
A committed school teacher and keen musician, Katie admits that her dramatic decline was hard to witness and there is still a sense of longing that her mum has missed out on so many key milestones, including her 50th birthday last month.
“Mum died 17 years ago now but losing her at such a young age and so quickly was a shocker and still seems so unfair,” says Katie.
“There was this terrible feeling of injustice that she was only 61 when she died. She was very ill by the time I had my eldest daughter Natasha who is now 20 but she was always so lovely with her although she never met my youngest daughter, Eleanor, or her other grandchildren because all of my siblings have had children since she died.
“She would have found it highly entertaining that I was on Strictly but it’s sad that she never got to see me do the waltz or present the Proms, which has been a real career highlight, despite the pandemic and the changes we’ve had to make to the programming this year.
“She would definitely have loved the Proms because she was hugely into her music. She played the piano and encouraged us all to be musical.”
Katie reveals how her mother was only a year older than she is now when she first started to suspect something was seriously wrong.
“Mum was this amazing teacher but when she couldn’t remember the names of her kids and she couldn’t get to grips with her class is when she suddenly started to think something was up,” says Katie.“but you don’t at that age immediately assume that it is going to be something as grim and serious as Alzheimer’s.
“She was very on the ball and she was an extremely intelligent and bright woman but then it all went downhill in her early 50s.
“Bless her, it was a bit of a dramatic decline and it took quite a while for her to be diagnosed.
In the end, she had it for about eight or nine years before she died.
“My dad and younger sister were the ones who were the main carers and were absolute heroes. They were both amazing with her and at the end when she needed that level of care.
“After her death, I did feel angry and there was this sense of great unfairness. Mum was a relatively young woman and that never feels fair.”
A positive and energetic person, Katie refuses however to dwell on the prospect of herself developing early onset Alzheimer’s, which can have genetic links.
“I don’t think you can live your life in fear thinking something terrible is going to happen to you but of course I am aware of my own health and I do my best to try and raise awareness and raise money for the charities who carry out researching into
Alzheimer’s because I think it is one of the absolute scourges of our first world society and it is not a sexy disease for research,”she says.
“I think that people don’t realise how many families in the country are affected by it directly or indirectly and it is a cruel
‘You can’t go through life being scared’
insidious and unpleasant condition anyone to have to deal with.
“But we have to try and live in hope that a treatment for a cure can be found and I do everything I can to keep myself fit and healthy and active because that is the way to try and stave it off because you for