When someone you love is living with dementia, the future can feel frightening, confusing, and full of impossible choices. In this episode, Clive Bowman - formerly a leading physician and Medical Director at Bupa -  demystifies what good care really looks like and how families can prepare before crisis forces their hand. 

Drawing on decades spent at both the bedside and the boardroom, Clive explains why early planning matters, how to spot a high-quality care home, and why transparency with professionals is essential. He shares extraordinary real-world stories about medication, sedatives, and the difference the right environment can make for quality of life, dignity, and connection.
 
If you want to know when to start looking at care options, why transitions into care can improve a person’s wellbeing, and what truly distinguishes a compassionate care home, then this is a must-listen-to episode. 

If you have any questions for Justine and Prof Julie. Email us [email protected]. 
For further help and advice please visit  
https://www.alzheimers.org.uk 

We wish you well during this festival period and look forward to being back with you in the New Year. In the meantime, we're revisiting a highlight from our first series with the brilliant Rebecca Evans CBE. 
 
The Grammy award-winning soprano talks about her career and how important supporting the dementia community is to her.  
 
We also explore the power of music to unlock memories and provide comfort to those living with dementia. Prof Julie explains the neurological basis for why music memory persists even as other cognitive functions decline.  
 
Rebecca talks about witnessing Alzheimer’s for the first time as a nurse and shares her experiences as an ambassador of the Forget Me Nots Chorus, which uses music to support individuals with dementia and their caregivers.  
 
 We are aware that the Christmas and New Year period can be a difficult time for those living with or caring for someone with Dementia. Please remember you can always reach out for any help or advice at https://www.alzheimers.org.uk  

This week we sit down with Jen, who reflects on her mother’s PCA diagnosis, the sudden loss of her father, and the challenges of caring for young children while holding her world together. 

Her honesty resonates profoundly with Justine’s own journey caring for her mum. Together, they talk about the confusion, the fear, and the emotional weight of watching someone you love change. Jen goes on to explain her newfound ability to “turn pain into power”. 

There are tears, moments of laughter and a shared appreciation for the small acts of self-care — yoga, music, a walk, five guilt-free minutes — that help carers survive the hardest days. 

This episode is a tender reminder that none of us are alone in the complexity of caring for someone with dementia, and that strength often shows up in the quietest, most human ways. 

We'd love to hear your stories and your advice for anyone living with dementia - or if you have any questions for Justine and Prof Julie. Email us [email protected]. 

For further help and advice, please visit  
https://www.alzheimers.org.uk 

In this powerful and hopeful episode of In Two Minds, Professor Caleb Webber explains how vast new datasets and AI-driven pattern-spotting are transforming our understanding of conditions like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

Caleb is the Director of Informatics at the UK Dementia Research Institute and a leading voice in decoding the complexities of neurodegenerative disease. He reveals groundbreaking findings from his team’s work: surprising overlaps between Parkinson’s and diabetes, the discovery that existing hypertension medications may halve the risk of developing Parkinson’s, and a major new study exploring whether combining blood-pressure drugs with GLP-1 therapies (like Ozempic-type medications) could slow or even prevent the disease. 

Caleb offers real reasons for optimism: that prevention may be within reach, that repurposed medications could help people sooner than expected, and that the next decade of brain-health research looks more promising than any before. 

This is an episode filled with science, humanity, and genuine hope — for people living with Parkinson’s today, for those caring for them, and for anyone navigating life touched by neurodegenerative disease. 

We'd love to hear your stories and your advice for anyone living with dementia - or if you have any questions for Justine and Prof Julie. Email us [email protected]. 

For further help and advice please visit  
https://www.alzheimers.org.uk 

In season one, we heard the story of Gareth and his battle with early-onset dementia as told by his wife Carrie. In this episode, we hear the story from a different perspective - this time from his daughter, Katie. 

Katie was in Year 8 in school when she learned about her dad’s condition. In the years that followed, she experienced the overwhelming challenges of being a young carer. Katie courageously shares her journey of watching her young, vibrant, and athletic dad slowly fade as his illness progressed, and she talks us through how she navigated the immense emotional toll while still trying to be a teenager. 

She reflects on the profound love and bond she shared with her dad, the heartbreaking moments of caring for him, and how the isolation of being a young carer affected her life.

Through Katie’s story, we gain a deeper understanding of the ripple effect a diagnosis like this can have on families, especially the young people who are often left to navigate a world of care and loss at an early age. She also offers invaluable insight into the importance of counselling. 

Katie shares how she’s now channelling her experience into a career path in social work, determined to help families like hers. She’s also running a half-marathon to raise awareness and funds for Parkinson's disease, continuing to honour her dad’s legacy in a beautiful and impactful way. 

Katie’s bravery in sharing her journey will no doubt resonate with anyone who has faced similar challenges and provide much-needed comfort to those who feel alone in their struggles. We'd love to hear your stories and your advice for anyone living with dementia - or if you have any questions for Justine and Prof Julie. Email us [email protected]. 

For further help and advice, please visit  
https://www.alzheimers.org.uk 

In a remarkable conversation, clinical neurologist and researcher Dr Tom Massey takes us inside the world of Huntington's Disease (HD) research, sharing the latest breakthroughs that have brought the scientific community closer than ever to a cure.

Just weeks after this interview was recorded, news broke that clinical trials Dr Massey mentions - involving complex brain surgery to deliver gene therapy - were a success, slowing HD progression by up to 75%. Tom explains the science behind this advance, focusing on the role of DNA repair mechanisms.

We talk about the big ethical issues around pre-symptomatic testing and hear Dr Massey’s reflection on the "awe-inspiring" families and patients who volunteer for invasive trials, driven by hope for their children and grandchildren. Tom talks about how his research is motivated by his relationships with his patients and how witnessing their decline has only driven him further in his search for new treatments.

This is an essential listen for anyone connected to HD or interested in the future of neurodegenerative disease treatment.

If you have any questions for Justine and Prof Julie. Email us [email protected].
For further help and advice please visit 
https://www.alzheimers.org.uk

In this second part of our conversation with Lucy Briers, she talks candidly about the last few months of her Mum, Ann’s life and the coping strategies she used to help her.

Lucy talks about how her mum looked ten years younger in her final days and seemed to remember her late husband, Richard, again. She also talks about the glimpses of affection shown by her mum and how important they were to her. 

We also hear about Ann’s days at the Liverpool Playhouse and how Lucy discovered her mum’s diary from the time and found out all about her pre-marriage dating life.

It’s the culmination of a beautiful, revealing interview where Lucy offers words of advice for others going through a similar situation. We hope you find some inspiration from it.

 We'd love to hear your stories and your advice for anyone living with dementia - or if you have any questions for Justine and Prof Julie. Email us [email protected]. For further help and advice, please visit https://www.alzheimers.org.uk

Lucy Briers is part of acting royalty. Her dad Richard was in The Good Life. Her mum Ann Davies was in Doctor Who. Lucy herself is an accomplished actress and starred in the classic 1995 BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Over the next two episodes, Lucy talks to us about how she and her sister dealt with her mum’s dementia.
 
When Richard died in 2013, the family mistook the early symptoms of Ann's dementia for grief. They then struggled to get her to come to terms with the disease in the lead-up to diagnosis.

Lucy talks about adjusting to life with dementia and how she learned to stop caring about social niceties and began to find patience, understanding and strategies to help Ann day to day.
 
We'd love to hear your stories and your advice for anyone living with dementia - or if you have any questions for Justine and Prof Julie. Email us [email protected] further help and advice please visit https://www.alzheimers.org.uk

Between our main episodes, we're opening up our Memory Box, asking simple, nostalgia-driven questions to our guests and ourselves. These questions prompt memory and can help start a dialogue with someone with dementia. 

This time it's the turn of our presenter Justine to pick her favourite book, piece of music and a memory she'll treasure forever. 

 We'd love to hear your stories and advice for anyone with dementia - or if you have any questions for Justine and Prof Julie. Email us [email protected].

Between our main episodes, we're opening up our Memory Box, asking simple, nostalgia-driven questions to our guests and ourselves. These questions prompt memory and can help start a dialogue with someone with dementia. 

This week, it's the turn of Professor Vincent Dion of the UK Dementia Research Institute who talked to us at length in Episode 9.

 We'd love to hear your stories and advice for anyone with dementia - or if you have any questions for Justine and Prof Julie. Email us [email protected].