Scott Mitchell, the widower of Dame Barbara Windsor, has called on Prime Minister Liz Truss to fund finding a cure for Alzheimer’s.
Scott Mitchell, Barbara’s husband of 27 years, appeared on Lorraine this morning (October 13) where he issued a plea to the newly-appointed PM.
He urged Liz not to scrap the dementia task force – which was announced by her predecessor, Boris Johnson, in memory of Barbara.
Barbara Windsor and Scott Mitchell
Dame Barbara was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2014, but tragically passed away in 2020.
Following Barbara’s diagnosis, Boris Johnson promised plans for a task force in her name to combat the disease. However, that now that looks unclear whether it’ll go ahead.
Scott said that he’s ‘concerned’ as the roughly £95 million in funding is at risk. This is because recruitment for the project has been paused in recent weeks.
Husband Scott says ‘dementia cannot be touched’
Scott – who is an ambassador for Alzheimer’s Research UK – told Lorraine he’s aware of the current financial crisis the country is facing, but ‘dementia cannot be touched’.
He said: “When I went to see the last Prime Minister in August, just before he left, he said, ‘I’ve listened about this taskforce, we did a big conference with Dame Kate Bingham, who headed up the COVID [programme] and I’ve set aside 95 million pounds. With your blessing, we’d like to call it the Dame Barbara Windsor Dementia Mission.'”
“She would have been thrilled,” Scott added.
“However, the interviews to put people in place for this were supposed to take place two weeks ago. They were cancelled at the last minute and told that there are issues with the budget sign-off for the dementia taskforce.”
Scott urges Truss not to ‘delay this’
Scott then revealed that dementia treatments could take two or three years before becoming ‘active in the system’.
He added: “If you delay this now, again, after all these years, we are going to be talking about another five or six years before this can happen.
“So please, Prime Minister, if you listen to things like this, do not touch that money. Do not hold this. Do not delay this.”
A statement from the UK government said they “remain strongly committed to supporting research into dementia”. However, they did not comment on specifics.
So please, Prime Minister, if you listen to things like this, do not touch that money. Do not hold this. Do not delay this.
Barbara and her final moments
Carry On legend Barbara passed away in December 2020 aged 83. She battled Alzheimer’s for six years, spending her last few months in a specialist care facility.
Scott has also revealed recently that he wasn’t with Barbara as she took her last breath.
Ahead of the publication of his book detailing their life together, Scott opened up about his grief and sense of loss.
Talking to The Sun, he said staff at the care home advised him to head off and get some sleep.
Scott explained that by the time he was woken and approached Barbara’s room, he knew she was gone.
And he said that he felt like her ‘soul’ was ‘no longer in the room’.
Lorraine airs weekdays at 9am on ITV & ITV Hub.
Read more: Husband of Dame Barbara Windsor reveals ‘shocking’ abuse from cruel trolls over inheritance
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