Nine's Dimity Clancey: 'YOU CAN FEEL SO ALONE IN THE JOURNEY'

DIMITY IS CALLING ON CARERS, LIKE HERSELF, TO SHARE THEIR STORY

-  By Emma Levett

When Channel Nine star Dimity Clancey was a young news reporter, she used to call her mum Lorraine on the way to and from work every day to check in.

“I'd tell her what I was going to chase, and we'd chat and then at the end of the call she'd ask me again what I was going to chase,” Dimity, 41, tells New Idea.

“It was frustrating, and I couldn't work out what was going on.”

This was a decade ago when Lorraine, who is known by her loved ones as Lolly, was in her early seventies.

Gradually things became worse. And while Lolly's long-term memory was sharp, her short-term memory became ever-more fleeting.

The family resorted to things like little notes around the house and filling in a diary each day. Her husband would need to write: 'Barry's having a shower,' so she didn't worry about where he'd gone.

“Like many people in her situation she got very defensive about it. I think she felt quite frightened for a long time,” the 60 Minutes reporter says. But, having conceded something was clearly wrong, Lolly’s family took her to a geriatrician, where she was tested for dementia.