Fiona Phillips is filming a documentary about living with Alzheimer’s in hopes she can help find a cure for the disease that has “ravaged my family and is now coming for me.”
The ITV documentary will also look at the groundbreaking drug trial that has sparked hopes of finding a more effective treatment for the degenerative disease.
With filming set to start later this year, the program will examine the presenter’s mental and physical health following her diagnosis, as well as her hopes of being part of a drug trial.
According to The mirror, Mrs. Phillips, 62, said: ‘I want to go out and I want to work. I just have to get on with it. I mean, what’s the alternative, lie down and give up?’
The trial Ms. Phillips is currently working on is for a drug called miride juice – which is hoped to slow or even reverse the disease. It is not known whether she will receive the drug or a placebo as part of the trial.
Earlier this month, Ms Phillips told the Mirror she received the news about a year ago of the devastating disease of dementia, which killed both her parents, after months of brain fog and anxiety.
TV presenter Fiona Phillips is filming an ITV documentary about living with Alzheimer’s
With filming set to start later this year, the program will explore the presenter’s mental and physical health following her diagnosis, as well as her hopes for participating in a drug trial.
The documentary also touches on the groundbreaking drug trial that has sparked hopes of finding a ‘cure’ for the degenerative disease
The former GMTV presenter said the diagnosis was “heartbreaking” and continued: “It’s a terribly awful” secret to share.
She is currently supported by her husband, TV’s This Morning editor Martin Frizell, 64, whom she married in 1997. He said: “Tragically, Fiona’s family is riddled with it [Alzheimer’s].’
They are the parents of Nat, 24, and Mackenzie, 21. Until this month, the couple had not directly told their children that their mother has Alzheimer’s disease.
The drug trial she’s taking part in is taking place at University College Hospital in London – but since half of the participants are given a placebo, it’s impossible to know if she’s actually getting the drug.
Her husband said he believes her condition is “stabilizing,” but admitted that could be “wishful thinking.”
The pair explained how Ms. Phillips initially saw the onset of severe anxiety, which she believed was linked to menopause.
But after symptoms like brain fog persisted despite taking HRT, she went for further testing that eventually ended in her diagnosis of Alzheimer’s.
The former breakfast TV presenter insisted she’s “still there,” adding, “This disease has devastated my family and now it’s come to me. And all over the country there are people of all different ages whose lives are being affected by it – it’s heartbreaking.
“I just hope I can help find a cure that might make things better for others in the future.”
“It’s something I thought I’d make it to at 80,” she said. “But I was only 61 years old.
“I felt angrier than anything because this disease has already affected my life in so many ways; my poor mother was crippled by it, then my father, my grandparents, my uncle. It just keeps coming back for us.’
Her father Neville died in February 2012, while her mother Amy died of the disease in May 2006.
Ms Phillips has often spoken out about the disease and campaigned for Alzheimer’s Research UK.
She told The Mirror: ‘I need to work out a plan of action that can be used if I ‘disappear’… Of course I’m afraid of inheriting the disease with my family history, and sometimes I wake up at night feeling anxious and worried . about the.
Fiona Williams pictured with her father, Neville, who died of the disease in 2012
Ms. Phillips hosted GMTV for over a decade before leaving the show (Photo: Ms. Phillips next to Eamonn Holmes)
‘My parents were relatively young when they got it; my mother was in her early fifties, although at the time we simply attributed it to her eccentric nature.’
Mrs. Phillips began her journalism career as a reporter for local radio stations such as Radio Mercury un Sussex and County Sound in Surrey.
Her big break came when she moved to GMTV in 1993 as an entertainment correspondent, before being promoted to their LA correspondent in December of the same year.
She then ran the breakfast show from 1997 to 2008 and was the main anchor every Monday through Wednesday.
Ms. Phillips announced in 2008 that she was leaving the show for family reasons and presented her last show in December.
This followed her mother’s death and came after her father was also diagnosed with the disease.