‘I only wish I could spare Nancy from this’

RONALD REAGAN, at 69, the oldest man elected president of the US, maintained a thumbs-up demeanour for the public during several bouts with illness during and after his White House term.

But in later years, as Alzheimer’s took a toll on his mental functioning, he was seen less and less. He died of the disease yesterday, nine years and seven months after he announced the diagnosis.

But his most traumatic health scare was on March 30, 1981, just 10 weeks into his presidency, when a would-be assassin’s bullet hit him in the upper chest.