BBC ONLINE: Alzheimers; Laughter The Best Medicine

Page last updated at 08:14 GMT, Thursday, 15 May 2008 09:14 UK

'Alzheimer's and my bizarre tennis'

Heather Roberts was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, three years ago It is not racket abuse when Heather Roberts, 53, flings her tennis racket across the court, but a sign of her encroaching Alzheimer's Disease. Yet as Heather, who was diagnosed aged 50, an ambassador for the Alzheimer's Society, tells The One Show, she is determined to live a normal life for as long as possible especially her regular games of tennis. I used to be a good player and it's only occasionally that you see glimpses of this. Everything coordinates together and everything works and I can get the shot in. But a lot of the time it's sort of all over the place or the racket goes all over the court or I miss the ball or the timings wrong and I have been known to fall over; that's all part of the Alzheimer's and the way it affects me. Tennis is about getting all the factors right and getting the bits and pieces right, but most of the time I can't manage that. My brain is too busy trying to get all of the bits right and quite often I miss the shot all together. I think most people have spotted that something is wrong when I hit the ball astray. Laughter is the key to coping with Alzheimer's disease I do talk about it openly. Some people don't want to know, some people walk away while other people are interested to talk about it to explain my seemingly bizarre behaviour when I insist on throwing my racket across the court. Laughter is the key to coping with Alzheimer's disease, being able to laugh at myself and at the situation makes life more bearable and gives me a better quality of life. I have been known to lose track of money and not to understand the value of money this is something I'll check with my daughter Frances, is this the right amount of money for this thing? Because I've lost the ability to deal with that. We've got to talk about this, we've got to bring it out from cupboards and behind doors where it's all been hidden and we've got to talk about it. I'm going to fight this all the way down, but some days you can't fight this, you've got to give in gracefully. But most of the time I'm going to fight it all the way.