Actor and director Terry Jones, a founding member of Britain's zany Monty Python comedy team, has been diagnosed with a severe form of dementia.
Jones, 74, is a member of Monty Python's Flying Circus, formed in the late 1960s with John Cleese, Eric Idle, Graham Chapman, Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam.
A spokesperson for Jones said the comedian had been diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia (PPA), which is a variant of frontotemporal dementia.
"This illness affects his ability to communicate and he is no longer able to give interviews," the representative said in a statement on Thursday.
The National Aphasia Association describes primary progressive aphasia as a neurological disorder of language that commonly progresses to a near total inability to speak. It is not a form of Alzheimer's disease
does it show we are getting old(er) when we start noticing the many people we have known all our lives are either passing away or getting sick and passing away?
i really dont remember taking much notice of celebs getting sick or passing away when i was younger.
sad day for fans of monty python, another true genius leaving the stage. but leaving the audience wanting more! BRAVO!
None of us knows what is ahead of us. We should all try and make the best out of the time we have.
I always feel sorry when I hear about intellignt people loosing their ability to reason.
My daughter-in-law's mother has been diagnosed with Alzheimers just recently. She is a brilliant musician, an accomplished painter and much younger than I. It was a shock to my system and I am so grateful that on my 80st birthday (yesterday) I sttill have all my witz together, although the body is slowly falling apart.
Illness does not discriminate between age, beauty or whealth.
Make every day as if it was your last one. Love the people around you, forget about anger and hate.
None of us knows what is ahead of us. We should all try and make the best out of the time we have.
I always feel sorry when I hear about intellignt people loosing their ability to reason.
My daughter-in-law's mother has been diagnosed with Alzheimers just recently. She is a brilliant musician, an accomplished painter and much younger than I. It was a shock to my system and I am so grateful that on my 80st birthday (yesterday) I sttill have all my witz together, although the body is slowly falling apart.
Illness does not discriminate between age, beauty or whealth.
Make every day as if it was your last one. Love the people around you, forget about anger and hate.
Such sad news, Stawka.
Erica
Even when she loses everything else, she won't lose her music. After leaving school I was working night shift in a nursing home. There was one lady I'll never forget. She didn't know anyone, didn't even remember her own name. She had Alzheimer's and was at the stage she couldn't feed herself any more.
Some nights she would wander. In their loungeroom there was a piano and my colleague would often go and play it of a night. When ever this lady heard the piano, she'd wander into the loungeroom. Turns out she was a piano teacher at the Conservatorium of Music and also a concert pianist.
One night I told my boss to play a familiar piece, Fur Elise. The lady's face lit up. I then told my colleague to make a mistake to see what happened. The lady went off her head and told her where she had gone wrong and told her how to play it correctly, even tapping the correct keys. Then demanded she start again.
I had taught myself to play a few songs, so I had a go. I wasn't even halfway through a song and she slapped my hands. Then she told me to stop abusing the piano. I needed to glide my fingers over the keys, not thump them. I started again and got my hands slapped. She told me to stand up. She sat down..........and played. Played several songs to absolute perfection, including all pages of Fur Elise.
From that night onwards, if she was having a wandering night, we'd take her to the piano. Even when she got to the stage of staring at the floor all day, she still came alive when she was sat in front of the piano. There were a few other residents with dementia who also played piano throughout their life and they also belted out a few tunes when sat in front of the piano. Their families were amazed.
Even when the brain totally shuts down as the disease progresses, for some reason the music area seems to stay intact.
I am so glad to hear that the music remains in their heads. Liz and her husband Tony have hundreds of records and tapes of concerts. I must mention this to my DIL. She will be pleased to hear that something can keep her mother happy.
