The mother of a 24-year-old dementia sufferer who died just after Christmas broke down in tears as she opened up on receiving the diagnosis he 'had the brain of someone in their seventies' before being put on end-of-life care.
Sam Fairbairn took to This Morning alongside her husband Alastair to open up on the tragic loss of Andre, who passed away on December 27 after a devastating battle with dementia, that left him unable to speak and walk.
The heartbroken mother revealed the moment she first knew something was wrong with her son, then 22, before the family were broken the news of his diagnosis.
Struggling to hold back tears, Sam paid tribute to her 'cheeky, funny, chatty' son, as she recounted spotting early signs at her wedding to Andre's step-dad Alistair, 62.
Sam told Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard: 'At our wedding in November 2022, I was more [worried] about "I'm going to have to be watching Andre because if not, he'll have a bit too much to drink".
'But he’d gone home by half nine, he just said, “I’m going home, I’ve had enough” and off he went, and that’s just not like him. I just thought maybe the day had got to him.
Everyone experiences dementia differently. Use this checklist to help you make a note of your symptoms before you talk to your GP.
Symptom Checklist
The mother of a 24-year-old dementia sufferer who died just after Christmas broke down in tears as she opened up on receiving the diagnosis
Andre, passed away on December 27 at the age of 24, after a devastating battle with dementia that left him unable to speak and walk
‘Every morning he would go to the shop for his drink, and he [started to] come back and forget what he was going for, or he’d come back with something different, or go three or four times a day.
‘He had some changes in his behaviour, which were totally out of the norm for Andrew, his speech and the way he was talking, and then forgetting what he was going out to buy.
‘I’d worked in a day centre for people with autism and ADHD, and I put two and two together, and took him to the GP - he had the assessment and scored very highly; he’d got autism but there was still something missing.’
Asked by Cat, 49, whether she had a ‘mother’s intuition’ something further was wrong, Sam continued, dabbing her tears: ‘Yes, and we went back to the GP and they sent us for an MRI scan.
‘That’s when we got the news that he’d got frontal atrophy - the consultant said if he didn’t know the scan he was looking at, he’d have thought it was like that of a 70-year-old that had got dementia.’
It was later confirmed that Andre, a wrestling and Xbox fan who gave up his job at a car manufacturer as his condition deteriorated, had frontotemporal dementia (FTD) caused by a protein mutation.
The rare form of the disease affects about one in 20 sufferers.
Sam, 49, went on to quit her career as a coach driver to look after her son full-time, dedicating her days to helping him dress, bathe him and eat.
She and husband Alistair also ticked off items on a bucket list for Andre, including visiting Shrek's Adventure! London and riding in a drifting car.
By September 2024, Andre had to be moved into a care home as his mobility declined rapidly and he started having falls.
Sam tearfully recalled: 'Just before his 23rd birthday, he'd lost a lot of his speech - [he went] into his first care home in September last year, he walked in very slowly and then within a month he was in a wheelchair.
'Then he got poorly; he got an infection and spent three weeks in hospital. We thought at beginning his not eating/drinking was due to infection because ourselves if we're poorly we don't want eat/drink.
'Then we got devastating news that he was on end of life care. He went into hospice Thursday before Christmas and passed away December 27.'
It comes after the devastated mother revealed that the family had decided to donate his brain to science in the hope of finding a cure for dementia.
She told the Daily Mail: 'Unfortunately he wasn't able to make the decision [about donating his brain] because the disease had taken his voice and his mind quite early on.
'But Andre being the person he was, if he could help he would have said yes.'
She added: 'Early-onset dementia is something you hear about more and more now. It's not just something you associate with people who are in their 50s or 60s.
'What we're hoping is even if it's not a cure but that it leads to some sort of treatment that can prolong someone's life and give them a few more years with a loved one that would be just amazing.'
Andre died at the Priscilla Bacon Lodge hospice in Norwich, with mum Sam saying she took comfort from the fact he retained his jovial personality to the end.
'The nurses and health care workers would come in to change him and you’d hear a “Whoo”, which was his happy noise, because they’d said something funny to him,' she explained.
About 50,000 people in England are believed to be living with early-onset dementia when tell-tale symptoms begin before the age of 65.
Fewer than two-thirds have been diagnosed however suggesting tens of thousands are unaware they have the illness.
The Daily Mail has started a Defeating Dementia campaign in association with the Alzheimer's Society with the aim of improving awareness of the disease increasing early diagnosis boosting research and improving care.
The family recalled how they first noticed signs something was wrong with Andre at a 2022 wedding (pictured: Sam, middle, with sons Tyler, left, and Andre,right)
Dementia sufferer, 24, with 'brain of a 70-year-old' dies
The mother, whose other son Tyler, 23, has so far pointedly avoided having tests to see if has the same genetic condition as his older brother, backed the campaign, saying: 'I'm all for any research and better awareness. People need to know how devastating this disease is.
'It's the cruelest disease because there's no treatment. There's nothing to help with the symptoms and you watch, and you grieve, and you lose that person time and time again.
'It's just heartbreaking to see that person - and that person doesn't even realise what's happening to them most of the time.
'With cancer there's chemotherapy and radiotherapy. People can have treatment and go into remission and can live a very fruitful,long life. With dementia there's nothing.'
Andre's brain was donated to Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge for research. His funeral will take place at Breckland Crematorium in Norfolk on January 27.
This Morning airs weekdays from 10am on ITV1 and ITVX