September is World Alzheimer’s Month. To highlight the impact of this devastating illness we spoke to alumna and author/journalist Susan Elkin nee Hillyer (1958-65) whose experience of Alzheimer’s has prompted her to write a book, The Alzheimer’s Diaries: A Love Story, in order to help others:

“Nick and I were married for 50 years and five months, We were already firm friends long before I left Sydenham in 1965. I’m a professional writer and journalist so when he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2017 he readily agreed that I should write about the progress of his illness. He thought it would help other people. So I started a weekly blog which gathered quite a following as I charted, week by week, what turned out to be a pretty rapid decline. He died in Lewisham Hospital in 2019.“

Following the popularity of the blog, Susan is now publishing it in book-form with Unbound Publishing whose operating model is to crowdfund the publication costs.
“It goes almost without saying that I’d be utterly delighted if more people in the SHS network wanted to help, and to those who already have, thank you”

World Alzheimer’s Day is on 21 September. To commemorate this, Unbound Publishing is offering a 20% discount on pledges up to £100. The code is ALZ20

Find out more here: https://unbound.com/books/alzheimers-diaries/