A British woman whose father and grandfather died of Alzheimer’s has inherited the mysterious disease, thusbecoming one of the youngest people in Britain to be diagnosed with Alzheimer's at the age of 36.
Carla Brammall, a former court worker from Northampton, first developed symtoms of the disease when she was 30.
Carla was only 15 when her father, Barry, died of Alzheimer’s at the age of 43, and she faced a 50% chance of inheriting the incurable disease.
Carla was diagnosed with a rare mutation of the PSEN-1 gene, which affects just 450 families in the world. Now 39, Carla needs round-the-clock support and lives in a care home.
“She’s gone downhill a lot quicker than her dad. Watching my own child go through this is indescribably painful. It breaks my heart,” Carla’s mother, Rita Pepper, said. Carla’s 18-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter have since moved in with Pepper.
The inherited form of dementia claimed the lives of Carla's father, uncle and grandfather, all in their 40s.
