At first it was small things, explains Stuart Lambie. Her father, Ian, would ask a question and then repeat it a few minutes later, apparently without remembering that she had already received an answer. “It was my wife, Hazel, who noticed it first,” says Stuart, “but gradually it became clear that something was happening.

“I would have described my father as a very gentle man,” he continues. “He was an incredibly kind and supportive father to my sister and me.”

Growing up in Glasgow, Ian served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War and had a career with British Rail before setting up his own construction company. “He was fit, active and sociable and I had a lot of friends,” adds Stuart.

However, living almost 300 miles away in Shropshire, Stuart worried more about his father. “I guess I didn’t want to admit what was happening,” he says, “and I felt bad that we weren’t closer. But when my parents came to visit me in 2011, it was obvious that something was seriously wrong with Dad’s memory.”

Married since 1954, Stuart’s parents were a very close-knit couple. Now his mother, Netta, was also worried. “We agreed that I would talk to him and try to persuade him to see a doctor. So one morning at breakfast, when no one else was there, I broached the subject. “It’s probably the most difficult conversation I’ve ever had in my life,” he adds.