Candice Brown
‘Dementia stole my grandad – but the cake I baked brought him back’
TEMPTING: Candice, left, with one of her creations. Above: On Great British Bake Off in 2016. Top left: As a toddler with her grandad Fred always shaky on his feet because of the Parkinson’s, but he started to get more muddled and confused. He’d forget things, repeat himself over and over, and follow Nan around the house all day.’
Finally, in 2003, came a longawaited referral to a memory clinic, where MRI scans and cognition ability tests confirmed Alzheimer’s disease.
‘He deteriorated very fast from that point,’ says Candice. ‘He’d see rats in the fireplace. He was on his hands and knees staring and searching even though we’d tell him there was nothing there. Eventually we learned to just go along with it.’
Then 18, Candice would make weekend trips home from university in Birmingham to join the rest of the family in caring for her grandfather. ‘ It meant I could give Nan a break from looking after Grandad. I would have done anything for him.’
Then, one afternoon in June 2005 Grandma Marg went out to the supermarket for the couple’s weekly shop. She never returned.
‘Her body gave up,’ Candice says croakily. ‘She just died. She was tired, she’d had enough. The bottom of my world fell out that day.’
The Browns had to explain it all to a bewildered Fred.
‘We thought, does he understand what we’ve said? Then a little while l ater he suddenly said, “Marg’s gone, hasn’t she?” ’
Candice’s aunt tried to keep caring for Fred at home. But two weeks after Marg’s death, it became too taxing and he was placed in a local residential home. Within two years, Fred’s Alzheimer’s took a greater hold, with conversations becoming few and far between. After three admissions to hospital for a urinary infection, Fred contracted MRSA. He passed away in hospital on April 20, 2007, aged 87.
Was there a sense of relief? ‘ Never,’ Candice says. ‘ He was never, ever a burden. But we just thought, OK, he’s with Nan now.’
Ten years later, the sense of loss remains acute for Candice – especially at Christmases and birthdays, and when she bakes Nan’s boiled fruit cake.
Studies show that the risk of dementia may be reduced thanks to healthy lifestyle choices in general, including a diet low in sugary foods, and regular exercise.
So I wonder if Candice is about to ditch the buttercream-clad cakes and biscuits she’s now famous for? Is she heck: ‘Life is short and I don’t want any regrets. I don’t smoke, I stay active, and I know these things keep the brain healthy. But I’ll enjoy my glass of wine. I’ll enjoy a dance with my friends. And I’ll definitely enjoy a slice of cake – just like Grandad did.’
Candice supports Alzheimer’s Research UK – the UK’s leading dementia research charity. See alzheimersresearchuk.org.