Health

One in Three Brits Will Face This Life Changing Diagnosis and the Signs Are Easier to Spot Than You Think

Published on June 25, 2025

Right now, nearly a million people in the UK are living with dementia – a number that’s expected to soar to 1.4 million by 2040. It’s not just a national concern either. Globally, dementia cases are predicted to triple by 2050, according to the World Health Organisation.

It mostly affects those over 65, with the chances of developing it doubling every five years after that age. But it’s not just the elderly. Some people start showing signs much earlier, and that brings a different kind of struggle – not only for them but also for their carers and loved ones trying to make sense of what’s happening.

In England alone, around 540,000 people are caring for someone with dementia. Statistically, one in three people in the UK will find themselves in this role at some point. Many of these carers are juggling full-time jobs while trying to support a family member, and some have had to make serious sacrifices, reported Surrey Live.

It’s thought that around 66,000 people have already reduced their hours at work, while another 50,000 have left employment entirely to care for someone with dementia. The financial impact is staggering – dementia costs the UK economy around £23 billion a year, more than cancer, heart disease, or stroke. That number is expected to triple by 2040.

Stewart Mcginn from Baycroft Care Homes is urging people to be more aware of the early signs of one particularly tricky type of dementia – Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD), which Bruce Willis was recently diagnosed with. FTD doesn’t always present like typical memory loss conditions. It hits the parts of the brain that deal with personality, behaviour and language, and it tends to affect people from their mid-40s upwards.

Mcginn explains that it can be misdiagnosed as schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s or even just stress. One of the early signs is regularly misplacing items, but not in the usual way. This isn’t forgetting where the car keys are once or twice – it’s finding your glasses in the fridge or your TV remote in a drawer with the cleaning products. That sort of confusion is a red flag.

Planning and organising might also become a serious struggle, even for tasks the person has done a hundred times before. Language becomes another noticeable issue – not just forgetting a word here and there, but full sentences becoming jumbled or replaced with completely unrelated words.

Mood swings can be another indicator. Mcginn says someone might go from calm to angry without any clear reason, or start becoming withdrawn and anxious when they were once outgoing. These aren’t just quirks – they could be signs of something much deeper going on.

Then there are the memory issues many associate with dementia, like forgetting names or recent events. But in more advanced cases, people might become confused about time or forget where they are entirely – getting lost on a familiar street or mistaking a grandchild for their own parent.

If any of these signs sound familiar, getting checked by a GP is a must. If needed, they’ll refer your loved one to a specialist for further evaluation. The earlier dementia is detected, the better the support can be for everyone involved.

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