By Jennifer Kent
GLASS House Mountains man Steve Coleman was in his 40’s when he was diagnosed with Lewy body dementia, a common form of dementia caused by the degeneration and death of nerve cells in the brain. Steve has been a staunch advocate for Dementia Australia for almost a decade and, among other things, runs a local support group for people living with Lewy body dementia.
Steve was recently involved in the ABC television show ‘You Can’t Ask That’, where he was one of several individuals interviewed with challenging, sensitive, shocking, sometimes funny and often uncomfortable questions about what it is like living with dementia.
Steve shared with GC&M News that while it was a very scary experience, which took a lot of personal preparation – a big change out of his usual routine – he said overall it was a really great experience. He shared that the response from the show, which aired on ABC last month, has been really positive.
“We filmed last year, and ABC were just fabulous to work with,” Steve said of his experience in studio. “They were caring, generous, and treated everyone with respect making it a great project to be part of.”
Steve’s favourite question posed – “When did you realise you were losing your marbles?”
According to Dementia Australia’s website, dementia is the leading cause of death for Australian women and the second leading cause of death for Australians.
Passionate about raising awareness of the disease, Steve shared one of the most common misconceptions about the disease is that it can strike at any age.
“A lot of people think it’s ‘a disease of the elderly’, but that simply isn’t true. People have an idea of what it looks like and expect it to look, or be, a certain way, but in reality there’s early, mid and late stages and it’s different for everyone,” he explained.
“Everyone has a different journey and it’s important that people realise that there is help and support out there and you can live with it.”
For individuals and family members going through a diagnosis of dementia– which Steve says can commonly take 2-3 years to be formally diagnosed – he advised to be pro-active and do your research, look for support groups and ask as many questions of your doctors and specialists as you can.
For more information, visit Dementia Australia’s website www.dementia.org.au, or free call 1800 100 500.
You can watch the episode of ‘You Can’t Ask That’ on ABC iview anytime at iview.abc.net.au/video/LE2021H008S00
