New ‘national mission’ in Dame Barbara’s honour
Boris Johnson is launching a new “national mission” to tackle dementia in memory of the late Carry On and EastEnders star, Dame Barbara Windsor.
The Prime Minister said the Government would commit an additional £95 million in research funding, meeting a manifesto commitment to double funding into seeking treatments for the disease to £160 million by 2024.
He issued an appeal for a “Babs’ army” of volunteers, with or without a family history of dementia, to step forward to take part in clinical trials on new therapies.
It comes after a meeting this week in Downing Street between Mr Johnson and Dame Barbara’s widower, Scott Mitchell.
The actress, who died in 2020, helped spearhead a campaign to raise awareness of dementia after Mr
Mitchell disclosed in 2018 that his wife had been diagnosed with the disease four years earlier.
Mr Johnson said: “Dame Barbara Windsor was a British hero. I am delighted that we can now honour Dame Barbara in such a fitting way, launching a new national dementia mission in her name. “We can work together to beat this disease, and honour an exceptional woman who campaigned tirelessly for change.” Mr Mitchell said: “Barbara would be so proud that she has had this legacy which will hopefully mean that families in the future won’t have to go through the same heartbreaking experience that she and I had to endure.”
Downing Street said the mission would be driven by a new taskforce.
The taskforce will bring together industry, the NHS, academics and families living with the disease and will build on recent advances in biological and data sciences.
Mr Mitchell is ambassador for Alzheimer’s Research UK.