Last year, in one of those windows between lockdowns, I went to the cinema to see ‘The Father’. I’ve never been so moved by a film.
Anthony Hopkins gives an outstanding performance as a man with dementia seeing the threads of his life start to fray and unravel, and the impact on his daughter, played by Olivia Coleman.
There are some clever directorial moves, as we are presented with shifting scenery and disorienting time lapses through the eyes of the protagonist, not quite sure what we are seeing, or why some things aren’t in the same place as they were a short while back.
I went with my daughter and the most wrenching scenes (for me at least) are those where you see the impact on the daughter’s life as she wrestles with what to do next. The simple lesson was that it’s a disease with wide impacts.
I might imagine I can cope with what could happen to me – reflecting on the impact it could have on my children was what made me leave the cinema emotionally wrung out.
There are currently 900,000 people living with dementia in the UK (and there are some 55mn worldwide, with the numbers expected to grow dramatically).
With no cure and limited treatments, one in three people will develop the condition in their lifetime.
As Wendy’s book makes clear, it’s not automatically the end of life, but can be the start of a very different one. That said, for many, the disease has a devastating personal impact, but also far-reaching consequences for society as a whole – it currently costs the UK economy over £34bn every year.
It’s hard to imagine that will be many of us who won’t be touched by it in one way or another.
To date IUAD has been driven largely by colleagues in the general insurance side of the business, so I’m delighted that Rose St Louis, protection director at Scottish Widows, is also joining the IUAD board to support the great work already done.
