At 04:48 on Wednesday 25th April 2012 my Mum died of Alzheimer’s. She’d had the illness for four years and over the last three to four months been in and out of hospital. Over the last weeks I’ve been thinking about how ‘we’ perceive Alzheimer’s, and how the people with the condition perceive it and how it affects their perceived quality of life. This is the first of what I intend to be four posts over the next few weeks on the subject.

“It seems to me we have got into a habit of using ageing as a proxy term for combinatorial disability, its inaccurate and we should stop it.” So a few weeks ago I listened to this book, ‘The Warmth of the Heart Prevents Your Body from Rusting’, being read as ‘Book of the Week’ on BBC Radio 4. In brief, A psychotherapist, de Hennezel came to her subject - ageing- largely through her own resentment at feeling washed up at 60.