A British man has died with early-onset dementia at just 34 years old.
Daniel Bradbury, a father of two from Nottinghamshire, was diagnosed in 2017. He is thought to have inherited the condition from his own father, who died at 36.
Before his diagnosis, Bradbury began experiencing depression followed by headaches and a deterioration in his memory and coordination. His symptoms led to him losing his job.
The condition was confirmed after blood tests, leaving Bradbury and his partner Jordan facing an uncertain future. The couple's twins, Jasper and Lola, were born before his diagnosis.
In the summer of 2018, the couple got married after organizing a wedding in just three months so Bradbury could remember the occasion for as long as possible. Speaking to U.K. newspaper the Mirror at the time, he called it "the perfect day."
Jordan Bradbury told the newspaper in 2018: "I was worried Dan would be really emotional and forget what he wanted to say in his vows, but he spoke from the heart. He was so clear and calm, he didn't falter once."
This week, the Mirror reported that Daniel Bradbury died in October last year. His wife was quoted as saying the family was "beyond heartbroken."
Bradbury reportedly donated his brain in order to help scientists find a cure for his condition.
Dementia is a general term describing the loss of memory, language and other cognitive abilities. This serious mental decline was formerly—and wrongly—thought to be a "normal" part of ageing.
The most common form of dementia is Alzheimer's disease, in which the brain deteriorates over time. The second most common is vascular dementia, according to the Alzheimer's Association, which is connected to microscopic bleeding and blood vessel blockage in the brain.
According to Alzheimer's Disease International, someone in the world develops dementia every three seconds and more than 55 million people were living with it in 2020. Early-onset dementia—when a person develops the condition before the age of 65—is far less common.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states: "In 2020, as many as 5.8 million Americans were living with Alzheimer's disease." Around 5 to 6 percent of people with Alzheimer's develop symptoms before the age of 65, according to the Mayo Clinic. So, around 290,000 to 348,000 people could have the early-onset form of the disease.
In the U.K., the Alzheimer's Society states that 900,000 people are living with dementia and 42,000 of them have the young-onset form.
One cause of early-onset dementia is familial Alzheimer's disease, which is a result of genetic mutations that run in families. One such mutation called PSEN1 caused Bradbury's condition, the Mirror reported in 2018.
