A man who was diagnosed with early-onset dementia has opened up about his condition, and the signs his partner noticed early on.
Jim Rogers, a 58-year-old British expat living in Australia, had his entire world change after his phone rang during a visit to his cardiologist.
"She was like: 'Can you put it on silent?' And I had this blank where I couldn't even work it out," Jim told ABC News.
That fleeting lapse in a simple task immediately raised red flags for his doctor. "And it was she who said to me: 'Are you experiencing problems like this?'" Jim recalled.
That brief exchange ultimately led to a diagnosis that would change everything - early-onset dementia.
Originally from the UK and working in Australia's house renovation sector, Jim had been juggling a busy schedule when subtle symptoms began to surface.
Though he initially attributed his forgetfulness and mental lapses to work-related stress, others around him were picking up on signs that something more serious might be going on.
His colleagues grew concerned, and at home, his partner Tyler noticed troubling shifts in his behavior.
“I think I was having symptoms for a couple of years until I actually got my diagnosis,” Jim reflected. Despite these early warning signs, it wasn’t until the cardiologist’s referral to a memory clinic that the full picture began to emerge.
“They analyse all sorts of things about the way you perceive information, they sent me for brain scans, they do all sorts of stuff,” he explained.
The comprehensive testing revealed that Jim had likely been living with undiagnosed symptoms for years. A consultation with a neurologist confirmed what he and Tyler feared: early-onset dementia.
The diagnosis came as a devastating shock. "I looked at Ty, and he was clearly very upset, and so I knew it was heavy, but I didn't know much about Alzheimer's," Jim said. "I just thought it was an old person's disease."
Since then, Jim has made it his mission to raise awareness about the often-overlooked reality of young-onset dementia.
His personal journey is now being highlighted just as Australia has approved a new drug, Kisunla, for early-stage Alzheimer's disease.
While the treatment offers a glimmer of hope, experts caution that only 10 to 20 percent of dementia sufferers may be eligible.
Experts agree that diagnosing early-onset dementia can be tricky. “The misunderstanding that dementia is a disease of older adults leaves people with young-onset dementia fighting to be heard,” said Molly Murray from the University of West Scotland, per the Daily Mail.
She also pointed out that rarer types of dementia can present with atypical symptoms, which often get missed, further delaying diagnosis.