Britain’s longest-serving male newsreader Alastair Stewart has made a tragic comment about the state of his vascular dementia, which he was diagnosed with two years ago.
In an interview with The Telegraph UK, he shared, “I’ve covered the Gulf War and run the very first television Leaders’ debate, but now I can’t tie my own shoelaces or choose my own shirt.”
Stewart began his career on ITV in 1976, leaving the broadcasting station in 2020 after which he joined GB news. He resigned in early 2023 when he as first diagnosed, though he remains as a contributor.
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He has spent the last 44 years covering both local and international news, including the fall of the Berlin Wall, the first Gulf War, royal weddings and funerals, such as that of the late Queen Elizabeth II, and recently the coronation of King Charles for GB news.
Stewart, 72, recalls when he first became aware of the disease in late 2922, when it was affecting his work. He would turn up to work two hours early looking dishevelled, since he was unable to button his shirt or tie his ties. His grammar and spelling in emails was getting sloppy and he couldn’t tell the time on analogue clocks, he told the outlet.
“Discombobulated is how I felt,” he shared, especially with his colleagues being tipped off that something was wrong.
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An MRI showed that a series of small strokes called infarct strokes had caused his vascular dementia, exacerbated by high blood pressure, smoking fir over half a century, and stress from covering news events.
When he was finally given a diagnosis in early 2013, he shared, ”My immediate reaction was terror at those two words: stroke and dementia.”
Now, he feels differently.
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“After I was diagnosed, the psychologist told me, ‘When you go to bed at night, try to think back on your day and find three things that have made you happy.’ And for me, they always involve being with my grandchildren. They are like my medicine,” he said.
“There’s no point feeling self-indulgent about it. I won’t condemn myself to an awful life in the short term.”
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