“This disease has ravaged my family and now it has come for me,” Fiona Phillips said after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease at age 61

British TV host Fiona Phillips revealed she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease at 61 years old.

In an interview with the Daily Mirror, the now 62-year-old opened up about sharing her “heartbreaking” diagnosis a year later and how the disease has always impacted her life.

 “This disease has ravaged my family and now it has come for me,” Phillips said. “And all over the country there are people of all different ages whose lives are being affected by it  — it’s heartbreaking.”

“It’s something I might have thought I’d get at 80”, she continued. “But I was still only 61 years old. “I felt more angry than anything else because this disease has already impacted my life in so many ways; my poor mum was crippled with it, then my dad, my grandparents, my uncle. It just keeps coming back for us.”

Alzheimer’s is a degenerative brain disease that is caused by complex brain changes following cell damage. It progressively affects memory, thinking and behavior seriously enough to interfere with daily tasks.

Martin Frizzell and wife Fiona Phillips.Jon Furniss/WireImage

Phillips’ husband Martin Frizell told the outlet that the couple originally thought her symptoms — anxiety and brain fog — were related to menopause. However, after a menopause specialist put her on HRT, all her symptoms improved except for the brain fog.

Frizell explained that the specialist then suggested Phillips seek additional help. After months of cognitive tests and a lumbar puncture to assess spinal fluid, she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

“It was the shock. Total shock. And then we said to each other.. ‘Shall we go and have a drink?’ So that’s what we did. In fact we’ve now become locals at the pub on the square by the hospital!” she quipped.

“The doctor had said it was very early stages so we just had to go home and try to live our life as normal for now,” added Frizell. “That was all we could do.”

Fiona Phillips.Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock

Phillips admitted that she’s kept her diagnosis a secret for the past 18 months because she was “so worried people will judge me or put labels on me.” The columnist hopes that sharing her story will help end the stigma associated with the disease.

“There is still an issue with this disease that the public thinks of old people, bending over a stick, talking to themselves,” she said. “But I’m still here, getting out and about, meeting friends for coffee, going for dinner with Martin and walking every day.”

Phillips added that she also wants her story to raise awareness about clinical trials that can help with future Alzheimer’s treatments. She’s currently taking part in clinical trials at a London hospital for the drug Miridesap, which could potentially slow the effects of the disease.

“I just hope I can help find a cure which might make things better for others in the future,” Phillips told the outlet.