Author to chart Alzheimer's journey

4:05am Tuesday 14th October 2008

Best-selling author Terry Pratchett's personal journey after being diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's Disease will be charted in a BBC documentary.

Terry Pratchett On Alzheimer's is a two-part series examining the 59-year-old's experiences following his diagnosis last December.

The programme follows the author's race to find a cure as he endeavours to find ways of slowing, mitigating or even reversing the disease's course.

It is one of three new documentaries announced by BBC2 for Headroom, the BBC's two-year mental health and wellbeing initiative launched in May this year.

Michael Portillo: Death Of A School Friend will return to Portillo's school days, when a close friend and gifted student in his class named Gary killed himself just before his 16th birthday.

In detailed and moving interviews with Gary's parents and younger brother, Portillo will be shown discovering how the family's loss has affected their lives ever since, the BBC said.

Self Harm And Meera will see Meera Syal examine self harm in the UK and learn about what can lead to someone taking such drastic action.

Earlier this month, Pratchett urged people to talk openly about dementia.

A study from the Alzheimer's Society found that half of UK adults believe dementia is a condition plagued by stigma.

Figures show that one in three people over the age of 65 will die with a form of dementia. Almost a million people are expected to be living with dementia in the next 20 years, rising to 1.7 million by 2051 due to an increasingly ageing population.

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