Xtra Diary: Alzheimers - focusing on the human face of harrowing disease

Published: 19 March 2010

FINDING the positives in Alzheimer’s is a bit like searching for Roman ruins on the moon.

But one lady is trying to change that with a humble camera. 

Judith Fox watched on helplessly for 12 years as her husband, Dr Edmund Ackell, was diagnosed with the disease and his health rapidly deteriorated.

An exhibition of her photographic scrapbook of the period, called

I Still Do: Loving and Living with Alzheimer’s, is opening at the Cork Street Gallery in April.

Ms Fox, who lives in  New York, is dedicating the exhibition to other carers in an effort to reduce the sense of isolation that comes with the disease.

She said: “Photographing my husband has been an intimate and loving process, as well as a way of keeping him close as he was leaving me. My husband and I were partners on I Still Do. 

“Ed [pictured] was not only my muse and cheerleader throughout the making of the book but, because of his willingness to put a face in front of the statistics, he’s helped humanise an illness that has been in the closet for too many years.”

From denial to frustration and final acceptance, this pictorial tribute to her husband provides a rare insight into issues that face all of us – loving, ageing, humour, trust and mortality – as well as living with Alzheimer’s. 

• The exhibition opens on April 1 and runs until April 3 at the Cork Street Gallery, at 28 Cork Street, Mayfair W1. Free entry, 10am-6pm.

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Parkin packs ’em in with memories

THERE was standing room only in Soho’s legendary Black’s club as the crowds gathered for a rare talk from the erotic writer and bohemian bonne vivante Molly Parkin. 

The twinkly eyed Parkin, 76, who made her name with such raunchy novels as Up Tight (1975) and Breast Stroke (1983), talked about some of her memories of Soho in days gone by. 

She was joined by tailor to the stars Mark Powell who is currently working on an outfit for the Modfather himself, Paul Weller. 

The event was organised in memory of Daniel Farson – the broadcaster, writer and photographer, who died in 1997 – an exhibition of whose work came to an end this week.

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Stephen plays to the gallery

STEPHEN Wiltshire is obviously not a man who likes to stand on ceremony. 

That, or the vol-au-vents weren’t up to scratch at the launch of his new extended gallery in the Royal Opera Arcade on Thursday evening.

As the crowds arrived, Mr Wiltshire decided to throw them a mental curve ball and set up behind the piano to play them in. 

Fortunately for them the Maida Vale artist was feeling sociable and made it around the piano stool to chat about some of his pieces – among them a scaled-down version of the Manhattan skyline he drew from memory after a 15-minute helicopter trip over New York last year.

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So you thought bike theft was child’s play!

THEY start them young in Maida Vale. 

Boris would be pleased that this young two-wheeler is so security conscious, but Diary can’t imagine any 

self-respecting crim would saw through  the lock of this 

Fisher-Price bike.