Birds of a Feather star Pauline Quirke’s shock dementia diagnosis has sparked conversation around the syndrome and the diseases associated with it, such as Alzheimer’s. Now, an expert has shared the common mistake made when doctors diagnose dementia.
Quirke was diagnosed with dementia in 2021, but her condition wasn’t made public until January 2025, when her husband Steve Sheen announced: “It is with a heavy heart that I announce my wife Pauline’s decision to step back from all professional and commercial duties due to her diagnosis of dementia in 2021.
“Her talent, dedication and vision have touched countless lives, and will continue to do so through the legacy of her work and through PQA where her vision and guidance has facilitated many young people’s progression and interest in the arts, and enhanced their self-confidence.”
Earlier this week, her friend and former co-star, Linda Robson issued a heart-breaking update on her condition, saying: “I have noticed a real difference with her; she doesn’t remember her grandchildren so she’s not going to remember who I am even though we’ve been friends 56 years. It really is sad.”
Statistics show that between 2014 and 2022, there was a 69 per cent increase in the people in the UK living with early-onset dementia under the age of 65. But leading expert Prof Nick Fox, Group Leader in the UK Dementia Research Institute at UCL, told The Mirror: “There is nothing biological to suggest this is happening earlier”.
“So much of dementia at any age has previously gone under-recognised and under-diagnosed,” explained Prof Fox. “I think that’s something we are better at recognising, we are better at coming forward. Historically, if you are unusual in some way, if you’re young or have an unusual way of your dementia manifesting itself, it could be up to four years from the first symptoms.
“There are all sorts of stories of people being dismissed: ‘This is depression’, ‘This is the menopause’, all sorts of things. I’ve even known of people who are asked: ‘Are there marital difficulties?’ You start feeling like it’s your fault your partner has got cognitive problems.”
Prof Fox called the condition “the most devastating health problem of our age”. “We’ve got so much better at treating other big killers like heart disease and cancer, we’ve made fantastic progress but we haven’t made that progress with dementia,” he said.
“Dementia is now the commonest cause of the death in the UK, it’s a chronic illness of increasing disability and dependence over a decade and it affects far beyond the individual.
“It’s those people who care about and care for you, because people have very little support and often they become more and more isolated as they lose connection with the rest of the world. Someone with long onset, you may lose the ability to work, the ability to drive. You may then lose friends who don’t quite know how to interact with you and ultimately the saddest loss of connection is not just with yourself but with loved ones because you no longer know them.”
But things are steadily improving as our understanding of the syndrome grows. Prof Fox explained that some of the key risk factors associated with the disease had decreased.
“We know the key risk factors and some of them mean your risk of dementia at all ages has got slightly less for that particular age because of better blood pressure control that happened 20, 30 years ago,” he said. “So we’ve got these factors that we’re getting better at treating but on the other hand other risk factors are increasing like obesity and diabetes.”
When it comes to preventing dementia, Prof Fox said: “Most of the things that are good for your heart are also good for your brain. Alongside blood pressure are other things that we often call vascular risk factors – smoking, diabetes, high cholesterol – all the things that can clog up the arteries to your heart can clog up your brain. Then there’s just generally staying mentally and physically active.”