We will not grow old together but we're living our best lives

Couple to make most of life despite dementia diagnosis

- BY CIARA O'LOUGHLIN

AT JUST 52, Wayne Baron was given the devastating news that he has just five to seven years left to live.

Six years ago, he was diagnosed with early-onset Lewy body dementia.

Lewy bodies are abnormal clumps of protein that form in nerve cells in the brain and can cause problems with thinking, movement, behaviour and mood.

It shares characteristics with Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease and accounts for 10-25% of dementia cases in Ireland.

Wayne's wife Siobhan Baron said the diagnosis was "heartbreaking" for the couple and their four children, who live in Lucan, Dublin.

But they want to make the most out of the time they have left with him and spread awareness for early-onset dementia.

Speaking to the Irish Daily Star ahead of Alzheimer's Tea Day, Siobhan said: "We were supposed to retire together. We were supposed to live our best lives together.

"We did amazing for our kiddos and we were supposed to travel the world, visiting them or seeing them and seeing our grandkids.

REALITY

"And we'll never see that well, I will hopefully, but Wayne won't and that's our reality. We won't grow old together.