Stephen was diagnosed with dementia at 60. Then he was shown the door

Stephen Grady knew something was wrong when he couldn’t smell the roses in his garden.

Then, he found he was falling behind at work and, at 60, was diagnosed with dementia. Before he had time to process the news, his neurologist told him to come back in six months.

“You’re just left hanging there, without anything to hang onto other than going through your own grieving process,” he said.

Like many others, Stephen Grady struggled after he was diagnosed with dementia, aged 60. Credit: Dion Georgopoulos

“I went from a valuable contributor to society to having no value at all ... so there’s this whole question of, “OK, is your life over, is it still worth living?’.”