If anyone knows the heartache and devastation an Alzheimer's diagnosis can bring it's Fiona Phillips.
The TV presenter – who is just 64 – was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2023 after losing both her parents to the cruel disease.
With the help of her husband TV producer Martin Frizell and journalist Alison Phillips, a long-standing friend, she is set to release a moving memoir titled Remember When: My Life With Alzheimer's this July.
“I hope this book can show people a little about what it is like to live with Alzheimer’s," Fiona says. "How frightening and confusing it is. But also how much life can still bring joy and be valued. And if you or someone you love is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, I hope this book brings you some comfort. I want you to know, you are not alone.”
The book offers a deeply personal account of Fiona’s experience, written with the hope of helping others facing similar challenges. She takes readers through the earliest warning signs — the difficulty concentrating and the “brain fog” she initially dismissed as menopause — to the slow erosion of her memory and the confusion that followed. Fiona describes the progression of the disease with honesty and clarity, sharing how she manages day to day and how she’s learned to adapt. She also sheds light on her interactions with the NHS and the often complicated systems that can be overwhelming for patients and families alike. Throughout, her husband Martin provides his own powerful perspective, offering insight into what it’s like to support a loved one through such a difficult journey.
“This disease has ravaged my family and now it has come for me,” said Fiona, who says she was left feeling “angry” and in “total shock” at the diagnosis. “All over the country there are people of all different ages whose lives are being affected by it – it’s heartbreaking. 'I just hope I can help find a cure, which might make things better for others in the future.”
Mum-of-two Fiona discovered she had Alzheimer’s after struggling with brain fog and anxiety, which she put down to the menopause at first. “I've cried a thousand rivers in the past few weeks and I've got nothing to be sad about," she told the Mirror at the time. "I've been fearing for my sanity and I’m scared to do things I've been doing with ease for years. They call it brain fog; I don't know what I'm talking about half the time."
When HRT didn’t stop the symptoms, the ITV presenter was referred for months of cognitive tests, as well as a lumbar puncture to test her spinal fluid. Shockingly, these revealed that – like her mum, Amy, and dad, Neville – she had Alzheimer’s.

“It’s something I might have thought I’d get at 80. But I was still only 61 years old,” Fiona said. “I just felt more angry than anything else, because this disease has already impacted my life in so many ways; my poor mum was crippled with it, then my dad, my grandparents, my uncle.”
Fiona’s mum Amy was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s when she was in her mid-60s, and the star has spoken movingly about going to stay one Christmas, when the symptoms became apparent. Cruelly, she and Martin had been excited to tell her parents the happy news that she was four months pregnant.
“I was going to tell them and it was all going to be wonderful,” she said. “But Mum was really cold and there was no food in the house. Her eyes were dead and she was crying all the time. And Dad was beside himself. Little did we know he had it as well, but he was at an earlier stage and she was at a later stage.”

As Amy’s condition deteriorated, Fiona cared for her as much as she could. “Mum loved getting the most out of life every day, and to see her reduced to this weeping, mute, sometimes aggressive woman was horrible,” said Fiona, who has revealed that Amy became “suicidal” too.
Devastatingly, by the time Amy passed away in 2006, Neville was also in the grip of the disease, and the stress eventually overwhelmed the star. “I had a breakdown, dealing with GMTV and what my mum went through,” said Fiona, who left the show in 2008.
Tragically, Fiona’s dad died in 2012 at the age of 76, having been diagnosed with the condition in his 60s. “I loved spending time with him,” Fiona recalled.

Losing both her parents inspired the star to campaign for better understanding of Alzheimer's, by fronting appeals and TV shows. Understandably, her experience also sparked a fear that she was “bound to get it,” and in a bid to protect herself, she turned to a healthier lifestyle. But last year her fears became a reality, when she received her shock diagnosis.
She also took part in a trial for a new drug, Miridesap, which scientists hope could slow the disease. While she has no idea whether her treatment is a placebo, she takes it three times a day, with husband Martin injecting it into her stomach, using tiny needles. "I am very positive about the trials – but I have to be,” she said. “I want to try to make things better for people in the future who have this disease."

Meanwhile, the couple have also broken the news about her condition to sons Nat, 24, and Mackenzie, 21, urging them to have blood tests to see if they had inherited the gene. Thankfully, these came back negative, giving the family “an enormous sense of relief.”
Today, Fiona is now longer allowed to drive and suffers short-term memory lapses. She has also lost interest in food, and no longer uses the London Underground as a result of the anxiety caused by Alzheimer's. “There are things I'm slightly scared about now – it is like being a child again and I just feel vulnerable,” she says. “And that's not me at all.” Despite this, she is resolutely determined to live as normally as possible. “I’m still here, getting out and about, meeting friends for coffee, going for dinner,” she said. “I’m not brave. I’ve just got to get on with it. I mean, what’s the alternative, to lie down and give up?”
Available to pre-order now