Daryl Lees

My name is Daryl Lees and I was born on Monday 25 October 1965.

My mother's name is Jill and my father's name was William. My father died on 31 December 2001, the day before his 75th birthday, which would've been on New Year's Day.

I have three sisters, Jill, June and Karen and a brother named Kevin. Jill and June are twins and just 10 minutes separate them.

I started school in 1969 and left in 1982, qualifying my examination passes with good educational results. I started work straightaway on a UK government school-leavers employment scheme called the Youth Opportunities Programme (YOP). My first job was as a shop and builder's assistant at the town's local builders' merchants. I worked there for over a year, before the scheme ran out and had to start a new YOP somewhere else. I started at Wigfalls electrical store in the next town, and was there just 6 months before starting my full-time employment career.

In October 1984, I got my first full-time job as a barman at the town's local social club, the Coronation Club - also known affectionately in the town as 'the Corra'! I worked there until I started on a new career move in January 1992, where I started the well-known hosiery firm Pretty Polly. I worked there as a production assistant, supervisor and packer, before having to leave through ill health, which has dogged me ever since.

On 23 June 2011, I was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's Disease. This came as quite a shock, as i am only in my late 40s, but it is a hereditary illness, as my Mam (mother) is in the later stages of the brain-wasting disease and my grandmother was also having the symptoms when she died in 1997.

I get good support from the Working Age Dementia team, the social services, my social worker, my dementia and CPN nurse Natasha and my local GP and chemist. A few of my family and close friends are also very helpful towards me - I am lucky I guess, in the fact that I do have people there - there are a lot of people with dementia illnesses that haven't any support whatsoever.