Formula 1 legend Sir Jackie Stewart, 84, fears he's got dementia

Formula 1 legend Sir Jackie Stewart, 84, reveals he fears he’s got dementia after showing symptoms – seven years after his wife was struck down with the disease

It is a disease that has taken a heavy toll on the health of his beloved wife.

And now Scots racing star Sir Jackie Stewart has said he fears he too may be showing symptoms of the same illness.

The Formula 1 legend suffered a stroke last month and said he worries he may be diagnosed with dementia.

Sir Jackie collapsed in his hotel the night before he was due to be a guest at the wedding of Jordan’s Crown Prince Hussein in Amman.

The 84-year-old set up the charity Race Against Dementia (RAD) after wife Helen was diagnosed seven years ago.

The three-time Formula 1 world champion said of dementia: ‘I could easily have it. I’ve got all the makings of it. I’m forgetting people’s names and I’m not as sharp as I was.

The Formula 1 legend (pictured with Helen in 1969) suffered a stroke last month and said he worries he may be diagnosed with dementia

The 84-year-old set up the charity Race Against Dementia (RAD) after wife Helen (pictured with Jackie in 2019) was diagnosed seven years ago

‘If I have it, I have it. I’m still fully operational. But I probably will get it. Dementia is the leading cause of death in the UK.’

Lady Helen, 82, is suffering from frontotemporal dementia, diagnosed in 2016. A team of seven neuroscience nurses care for her around the clock.

Stewart, originally from Milton, Dunbartonshire, has described the effect of the illness on families as ‘horrendous’.

Lady Helen’s plight stirred him into what he called the biggest fight of his life – establishing RAD to fund research into finding a cure. He brings to the task the same gusto he brought to transforming safety in Formula 1.

His charity recently announced a £3.75million fund to recruit the UK’s best researchers. In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, he said: ‘The hardest part was being told that there was nothing we could do about it.

‘I knew nothing about dementia before Helen was diagnosed. And when I asked them, “When can we get something done about it?” and they said, “I’m sorry Jackie, we don’t have a cure for it”, that was just devastating.

‘When you’re a racing driver, everything happens very quickly. In Britain, we are leading the world in terms of the technology.

‘When I compare that with me coming into a situation with my wife of 60 years as it is at the moment – I can’t believe that for something taking more lives than anything else in the world right now, including cancer, we are so far behind. The establishment has failed on this. So we are turning to young PhD students to try to find the answers.’

Sir Jackie has said he believes his unremitting travel schedule may have contributed to his mini-stroke. He returned to Britain after the Monaco Grand Prix on May 28 to speak at the funeral of Annie Meldrum – wife of the late Queen’s headkeeper at Sandringham – before flying to Jordan.

He said: ‘I was very ill by the time of Annie’s funeral. I spoke, but not as well as I should have done.

‘I followed that with one night in Geneva and then went on to Jordan. And all that was after being in Miami for a very busy grand prix. It all added up.’

Sir Jackie said that physiotherapy since the stroke has led to him now walking ‘almost unaided’.

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