Ruth Langsford reflected on an emotional conversation she had with her late sister Julia on Wednesday's Loose Women during a discussion about talking to loved ones about their health. The TV presenter recalled the time that she and Julia started to realise that something was wrong with their father Dennis, who suffered from Alzheimer's. Ruth revealed that it was Julia who first noticed the change in their dad's behaviour, but that she later saw it herself and together the siblings had to persuade their mum that their dad was not well. She began: "When my dad had Alzheimer's, we obviously didn't know it was Alzheimer's but his behaviours were getting quite strange and difficult and unusual. I don't like the word strange, unusual."
Ruth Langsford spoke about the conversations she had with her late sister over her dad
Ruth with her beloved sister Julia and her mum Joan
The This Morning star continued: "But my sister and I, we would be having conversations and she would be jotting things down and she would be saying to me: 'Oh, dad's not quite right.' As I think my mum was in denial a little bit, as she was with him all the time. I remember going down to stay and we were going to the same supermarket they had been going to twice a week for years and years, and his driving was just awful. He was going too fast around the country lanes and going really slow on the dual carriage ways. And then when we got to the carpark he just stopped and said: 'Where do I go?' I remember going to the back room in their house and phoning my sister and saying: 'You're right, something's wrong.'"
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The TV presenter is incredibly close to her mum
Ruth went on to say: "I talked to my mum at first and I don't think she wanted to accept it. It was her really, who we had to persuade." The family then arranged for Ruth's dad to go to see a doctor, although he went into the room alone, so at first denied there being anything wrong as he couldn't see it.
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The star was incredibly close to her dad, who sadly passed away in 2012 at the age of 84, after living with Alzheimer's for 13 years. Ruth is now an ambassador for Alzheimer's Society, and previously spoke of her relief for her dad being diagnosed with the condition during a previous episode of Loose Women. She said: "I hope that doesn’t sound strange but when you know something is wrong and you’ve been looking into it and wondering and wondering 'why are they behaving like this?' When we got that diagnosis as a family, there was an element of relief, 'Oh, that’s why.' Then we understood it."
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