Professor Tim Spector

That's my lovely mum, June, who is still with us, aged 93.

But for the last seven years has been in a home in London after suffering a stroke and then developing dementia.

And so, yeah, that's changed some of my views on life.

And she was really pro-euthanasia and signed every paper possible that if this ever happened to her, you know, she would be able to end her life.

But unfortunately...

That didn't come true.

And under UK law, it's not possible to help her in that because she lost capability and mobility very early.

So she's still there, but she no longer recognises me.

It's a reminder of our potential future life and how so many people are going to end up with dementia.

That wasn't the case 50 years ago.

If I can do something to reverse this epidemic of dementia, then that's really motivating for me and encouraging.

Anyway, one reason why I've started to research the brain much more than I've done in the past.

It's increasing for a number of reasons.

So some of it is the age demographic.

So we're living longer, but we're not living healthier.

So our...

Health span hasn't really increased, but our lifespan has.

We're good at keeping elderly people alive longer.

That's definitely true, but there's also stats to show that it is increasing even when you take that into account so that more people are developing dementia than ever before, even when you account for the demographics and those other changes.

So it is a major worry, and I think it's one of the major fears that all of us have.