Oh man, where to even start with this? Picture this: Sir Jackie Stewart, legend of the racing world, is now on a way different kind of race track—one that involves dementia. And honestly, it’s just—ugh—heartbreaking is what it is. There he was, sitting with his wife, Lady Stewart, and she suddenly asks, “Where’s Jackie?” And I’m like, can you even imagine what that does to a person? It’s the first time it happened, and yeah, it’s tough.
So, here’s the deal. Sir Jackie, inspired (if that’s the right word for such a crummy situation?) by what’s happening with his wife, goes ahead and starts this charity called Race Against Dementia. And they’re doing some pretty neat stuff, like funding a blood test trial. Some smart folks at the University of Cambridge are on it, trying to catch signs of frontotemporal dementia way, way earlier than before. Kind of like spotting a bad turn before it sneaks up on you on the racing circuit.
Lady Stewart got diagnosed back in 2014. Think about this—she used to be super key to Sir Jackie’s racing success, tracking his laps and whatnot, and now? Well, things changed, and quite drastically. It started after, of all things, a car incident. She flipped her car, and thank goodness nobody got hurt, but that’s when they started to realize something’s up. Fast forward a decade, and Lady Stewart can’t even walk now. Really gets you, huh?
And you know what’s particularly wrenching? Sir Jackie talks about these moments when she just doesn’t seem like herself. Like using words she’d never used before—just out of the blue. Especially after 5 PM—this thing called “sundowning” happens with dementia. It’s like the mind’s clock just spirals out of sync.
Here’s a bit of a side tangent—seeing someone you love drift into this “new world,” as Sir Jackie puts it, must feel like losing them in slow motion. Like, you know they’re here, but they’re also not the same.
Anyway, Sir Jackie set up this super-accessible home in Switzerland for her. And, yeah, he knows he’s got the resources to do it, all thanks to that wild F1 career. But not everyone’s that lucky, you know? He visits dementia care homes and leaves in tears because people just seem… lost. It really hits home how big this problem is. One in three folks will face dementia, and if that doesn’t jolt you a bit, I don’t know what will.
Research has been painfully slow. Sir Jackie thinks figuring out the brain is bigger than, like, going to the moon. (Cue a slightly off-topic musing about space stuff—much as I love the moon, it’s another kind of mystery.) But his charity is on it, funding trials and all. Dr. Maura Malpetti (she’s the brain-whiz behind all this) says they’re looking at frontotemporal dementia that’s not genetic, which is tricky to pin down.
Here’s the cool science-y bit—imagine if changes in your blood tell you years in advance that dementia might be creeping up. Unlike those fancy but slow scans, this blood test thingy could be it.
And, just saying, the urgency is real. Sir Jackie even compares it to fixing a problem in F1 at a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it speed. Organizations like Race Against Dementia could seriously speed things up in research land. And, fingers crossed, maybe Sir Jackie will see a breakthrough in his lifetime. After all, he’s as pumped about fixing this as he was about becoming a world champ. That’s saying something, right?
Remember, though, if any of this resonates with what you’re going through, there’s support out there—like the folks at BBC Action Line. Definitely worth reaching out.
And just like that, I’m weirdly getting a bit teary-eyed. This chaotic life, man, full of surprises, both good and the not-so-good.
