Nuala and Gerry Paley first met when she was 21 and he was 23. Their relationship didn’t take off properly in the beginning, but they met again eight years later and were married within six months.
The couple, now aged 69 and 71, are living with the difficulty of early-onset Alzheimer’s as Gerry was diagnosed with it in 2017, when he was just 63.
“I first saw changes in Gerry about a year before his diagnosis,” says Nuala. “I noticed a change in his mood, and in his outlook on things. He was repeating himself, and seemed less aware of what he was talking about and what he was saying. The changes were subtle, but they were there. At that stage I had lived with him for 30 years, and when you’re with someone that long, you notice these things.
“He was diagnosed in 2017 and now, some days it can be difficult…