Tony Christie issues poignant health update after confirming dementia battle
Legendary singer Tony Christie announced in January last year that he had been diagnosed with dementia two years prior.
Tony Christie has shared a health update after announcing he had been diagnosed with dementia in January last year. The 80-year-old told BBC Midlands Today: "When I was first diagnosed with it, it was my wife who noticed I had problems doing my crosswords which I've done for 60 or 70 years.
"I'm still singing as good as I ever did. It's in my soul...I was born with it." His wife Sue added: "And it helps everyone." The iconic musician performed at a packed cathedral as part of a dementia-friendly service which was filmed for BBC show Songs of Praise.
The Amarillo singer crooned to some of his biggest hits in front of a crowd of more than 250 people at the Lichfield Cathedral on Tuesday. Tony previously told Express.co.uk in June last year that his wife Sue became worried about him initially and took him to the doctors where he was diagnosed.
“She took me to the doctor and they did all the tests on me,” he recalled. “They X-rayed me, MRI scan and all that kind of business.”
He went on to explain how, after doctors confirmed he was in the early stages of dementia, they were able to give him medication to slow down his symptoms.
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“They’ve put me on tablets that have slowed it down,” he said, before issuing a powerful statement about the illness.
“I want to say I’m not ashamed of it,” he said. “Because that’s the thing, people have been ashamed of it in the past.
“I’m not embarrassed about it, but a lot of people used to be. So many times, I’ve had people on the streets come up to me and say, ‘Thank you for what you did on television.
“And for not being embarrassed about it, because my family have got it and they’re embarrassed about it’.
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“And I spoke about it, as well, so that people will go out and get tested for it.”
Despite the dementia not affecting his ability to sing his biggest hits, Tony said he now has his song lyrics displayed on a monitor in front of him so he can remember the words.
According to the NHS, dementia is commonly associated with memory loss but can also have an affect on the way somebody speaks, thinks, behaves and feels.