My parents’ generation – and the ones before that – didn’t fear dementia. They didn’t even know it existed. Those were the days when average life expectancy was below 70 – and well below that, even 100 years ago. In 1925, setting aside the odd world war or two, men could expect with luck and a following wind to reach the grand old age of 55; women might stagger on to 58.
So although, just as today, dementia could occasionally strike someone down in their prime, it was rare. You were far more likely to die of something else, and your mental faculties would still be in pretty robust shape when the Grim Reaper came a-calling.
Of course, everyone knew that the older you lived, the more likely you were to develop little mental lapses of one sort or another. Absent-mindedness. Forgetfulness when it came to names, birthdays, anniversaries. But nothing too serious. A touch of what used to be called “senility” was nothing to be scared of. But here in 2025, men can expect to live until almost 80 and women to 83, long enough for the dementia window to open wide in a way it has never done before.
So it was no surprise this week to learn that the British public now fears dementia more than it does cancer. One in three adults (31%) say it is the disease that frightens them the most. Conversely, fear of developing cancer has declined from 30% a few years ago to barely above 20% today.
Consultant neurologist Dr Timothy Rittman of Cambridge University is unsurprised by the shift in national sentiment. “With cancer there are more and more treatments available, and a lot of cancers are curable now in lots of ways,” he says.
But dementia remains poorly understood. Ignorance breeds fear: knowledge is power. But what people DO know about dementia terrifies them.
Everything comes at a price, doesn’t it? Most of us want to live longer, and in a couple of decades it may be perfectly normal and unremarkable to reach 100. But the bill no one wants to have to pay is the one for developing dementia. Around 980,000 people in the UK have it today: that’s expected to rise to 1.4 million by 2040.
Want to live forever? Be careful what you wish for.