Helen can’t walk now and her memory has gone. I can pay for her care but others just can’t afford it
SIR JACKIE STEWART ON HIS WIFE’S BRAVE BATTLE WITH DEMENTIA AND HIS EFFORTS TO HELP DISCOVER A CURE
JUST as Sir Jackie Stewart begins to broach the subject, there is a pause. Which is actually quite remarkable. Having apparently perfected the art of speaking without drawing breath, the great Scot often attacks conversation with the same swiftness that made him virtually unbeatable at Monaco, Monza and many other famous Grand Prix circuits.
So it’s a little arresting, if entirely understandable, when the rat-atat delivery about his latest Race Against Dementia charity event slows to a dead stop.
Sir Jackie is talking about Helen, his wife of nearly 60 years. Specifically, he’s reliving the moment, back in 2014, when she was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia following a routine check-up.
‘You know what?’ said Stewart, gathering his thoughts for a couple of beats before telling Sportsmail: ‘It wasn’t nice to hear. But it wasn’t as bad as it is now.
‘Because a dementia patient degrades. I mean, Helen can’t walk any more. Helen has no memory to speak of, short-term. Great long-term memory, oddly enough. Because of Formula One, I can afford to pay for care. We’ve got seven neuro nurses. Not just nurses but neuro nurses, all looking after Helen.
‘They work two at a time, 24 hours a day. Now, who can afford that? Very, very few people.’
Able to fund Helen’s care through his own private wealth, Stewart set up the Race Against Dementia out of frustration at the lack of progress in finding a cure for this cruel disease.
Now 82, the always-energetic three-time world champion is clearly doing this for the girl he married way back in 1962.
Yet, he also feels an empathy with the estimated 50 million people around the world afflicted by dementia.
There’s a sense of shared mission with the families and friends out there raising money for research that, they hope, may one day produce a breakthrough.
It’s just that, well, none of this is happening quickly enough for a man who made his name by travelling at speeds that pushed man and machine to the limit.
Of course, his position means he can draw upon royalty, celebrity and virtually every blue-chip company on the planet to support some glitzy events; the one he has planned for Thirlstane Castle in June sounds like a dream weekend for anyone with a love of motorsport.
More than his contacts book and his famous persona as F1’s first real ‘rock star’ driver, however, the urgency that Sir Jackie brings to the battle is what really stands out. Revealing the sporting mindset he’d put at the heart of his charity, Stewart said: ‘In the same way that Formula One has problem solving, we want the medical profession to embrace that. Because it’s been 42 years (since the founding of the Alzheimer’s Association) and they haven’t found a cure for dementia. We’ve got to change that.
‘That’s why it’s called the Race Against Dementia. And we want to use Formula One for that.
‘All our PhDs go to Red Bull and McLaren to see how they work, because Formula One has better problem solving, faster problem solving, than any other business in the world.
‘We’re demonstrating that, setting an example for others to follow. Because the number of people with dementia now is horrendous. The statistics say that, for everybody born now, one in three are going to have dementia. And there’s no cure? Ridiculous. We have to change that.
‘We finance PhDs, fellowships. It costs a lot of money — over a million pounds for each of them. We have three in Australia, others in America, Scotland, England.’
The brilliant researchers entrusted with fellowships or other RAD grants all have to be experts in their field, of course.
But equally important to Stewart is an ability to think outside of the box. And a refusal to accept that current methods cannot be radically overhauled.
‘They’ve got to be new, they’ve got to be young,’ he said. ‘They can’t depend on the people who have coached them — because they’ve failed.
‘‘The present generation have not been successful in beating dementia.
‘Now, by far, it’s the most complicated piece of kit in the whole of the human body, the brain. But tell me that it’s right, for 40-odd years, not to have found a cure or a prevention.
‘We’re looking for ambition and new thinking. So they all go to Red Bull, go to McLaren, see how quickly change occurs at these leading Formula One teams.
‘Between every Grand Prix, there will be at least six major changes in every Formula One car. So it’s a very good model to follow.
‘One or two of our PhDs will come along to this event in June because I want them to be seen, I want people to hear them speak.
‘One of our brilliant people in Edinburgh just found something that required additional financing. That’s the kind of thing we can help with.
‘It’s work being done by a brilliant Scottish girl in Edinburgh, where she is based.
‘We’ve got things working differently, as a charity. And that’s what we have to do with the medical world, too. Because the methods of the past have not found a solution.’
If the cause is admirable and the motivation moving, Stewart’s methods focus on giving the public what they want. In style.
The Sir Jackie Stewart Classic planned for the Borders in midJune promises to be absolutely spectacular.
As the man himself, who spoke for seven-and-a-half uninterrupted minutes on the subject before finally — but only just — allowing a follow-up question, explained: ‘This is the first time we’ve ever done anything on this scale. It’s a cause very close to my heart — and we’re doing it in Jim Clark country!
‘It’s terrific, because Jim was my hero. The best racing driver I ever raced against. The best.
‘I would put Mr Fangio just ahead of him on the all-time list! But Jim was No 2 for me in all the world. Better than Michael Schumacher, better than all the current drivers.
‘We’ve got three days planned, starting with some shooting on the Friday.
‘I won the Scottish Championship in clay pigeon shooting before I ever took up race driving, so I thought it would be nice. And we’re doing it at the place where I won my championships.
‘Then we’ll have about 200 wonderful cars on display, before we have a sprint event.
‘Part of the driveway will be used for that. It’s been put up to a high standard for safety. So we’ll have competitors for that.
‘And I should think I’ll probably go up in a Formula One car — slowly! I never did go very fast anyway…
‘Inside, we’ve got every single trophy I ever won, in shooting and Formula One.
‘Nobody has trophies like that nowadays. They all go to the teams. But Ken Tyrell gave me all the trophies I needed when I was racing.
‘So all those Grand Prix trophies are there — the French, the German, Italian, Swiss, Monaco etc. All will be on display.
‘And there will be Paul Stewart Racing trophies, because that team did quite well. We won a Grand Prix and had several podiums.
‘There’s also a little cinema and my son Mark has just made a new film about me; it’s going on general release around the world. That will be showing.
‘So if it’s a wet day — and there’s never a wet day in Scotland, of course — people can see things indoors.
‘There will be a black tie dinner, as well. And we’ve got very good sponsors providing some wonderful support for the event.
‘As many people as you can get to come, they’ll have a wonderful time — and hopefully make a difference by supporting the Race Against Dementia.’
The present generation have failed in beating dementia
• To get ticket news and sign up for the newsletter, visit www. sirjackiestewartclassic.com — and go to www.raceagainstdementia.com for more information on the charity and its research efforts.