Forget me not: Kathy Ryan talks about living with early-onset Alzheimer's

Early-onset Alzheimer’s is a frightening illness, as ex-bank worker Kathy Ryan tells Colette Sheridan

“The stigma, ignorance and rudeness out there are still at horrifying levels,” says Kathy Ryan, age 57, who was diagnosed with younger-onset Alzheimer’s disease in January 2014. This mother-of-two grown-up sons, who lives in Cashel, Co Tipperary and is the vice-chair of the Irish Dementia Working Group, received her devastating diagnosis having noticed that she was forgetting words and had problems with short-term memory.

She is one of 5,000 people in Ireland, aged under 65, diagnosed with younger-onset Alzheimer’s disease.