Strictly Come Dancing’s former judge Arlene Phillips was “devastated” as she made an announcement on social media.
The I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! star is an ambassador for the Alzheimer’s Society, and had a huge dementia blow to share with fans.
Arlene wrote: “As an ambassador for Alzheimer’s Society I am devastated that dementia diagnosis has been removed from NHS England planning guidance.
“Nearly one million people in the UK are living with dementia. Removing the diagnosis target means dementia doesn’t matter. We need to make dementia a priority.”
Fans echoed her sentiments in the comments section, with one writing: “This is so heartbreaking.” Another added: “This is dreadful.”
Somebody else chimed in: “This is shocking. Mum had Alzheimer’s after dad died. This government and past governments do not care.” And a fourth social media user said: “How is this even possible? It’s outrageous and scandalous.”
It comes after the dementia drug lecanemab – which can slow the decline in patients with early stages of the disease – was approved by the UK medicines regulator, but is too costly to provide on the NHS.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence said the benefits are “just too small to justify the significant cost to the NHS”.
The drug was shown to slow the decline by four to six months during clinical trials, and targets the protein beta-amyloid in the brain. A second drug, donanemab, has also been approved but is too costly to provide to NHS users.
The second drug slowed the progression of Alzheimer’s by four to seven months in clinical trials.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.express.co.uk ’
