Dad's cruel dementia diagnosis at age of 51

VETERAN MAKES BUCKET LIST AND RAISES AWARENESS

- By LYRA AULD

Craig Mastalerz on one of his challenges and, inset left, with wife Jane

A HUDDERSFIELD dad is filming a 'bucket list' after being diagnosed with a 'far worse' disease than cancer plunged him into the 'darkest periods' of his life.

Earlier this year, veteran Craig Mastalerz from Almondbury, Huddersfield, was diagnosed with Vascular Dementia, Alzheimer's, and frontal lobe atrophy at the age of 51 following a series of symptoms that were 'completely out of character.

Now 52, the dad-of-two said: "At the time I wished to God I had died of terminal cancer.

"I wished that I had been diagnosed with anything else.

"I couldn't have been given a worse disease in general, and when I was diagnosed, I stopped everything. I was so depressed.