Brothers in their 20s with 15 good years left after being hit with rare dementia

Two young brothers in their 20s have both been diagnosed with a rare form of dementia.

Jordan and Cian Adams, aged 28 and 23 respectively, from Redditch, Worcestershire, have Frontotemporal Dementia, or FTD, a rare type of dementia caused by damage to the nerve cells at the front of the brain.

It mostly affects people under the age of 65 but their symptoms are likely to become symptomatic in their early 40s so could lose their lives within ten years of diagnosis.

To make matters worse there is currently no cure.

Their mother Geraldine also died from the same condition at the age of just 52 in 2016 and she could not speak or move unaided and did not recognise her children by the end of her life.

‘It’s horrible and I wish it wasn’t the case but it has given us meaning and a chance to make a difference in the world.’

And they are making a difference by running the length of the UK to raise funds for Alzheimer’s Research UK.

They have already raised £150,000 and set off from John O’Groats last month and hope by the time they reach Cornwall they will have raised £1million.

Cian said: ‘Every day we think, Not again! But it’s just not an option to stop. There’s a really good reason why we’re doing this and that’s what keeps us going.’

They are doing all of this in memory of their mum too and Cian said: ‘She’d cook a big chilli con carne and we’d have all our cousins round on a mid-week night after school.

‘She used to love her R&B music, too. She’d quite frequently have it blasting in the car when we’d be on the way to school.’

The brothers older sister Kennedy did not inherit FTD despite her two younger brothers developing it.

Cian said: ‘I think in many ways it’s just as bad for her as it is for us.

‘We are so close and she knows she is going to have to watch us go through it, whenever that may be.’

The brothers are aware the gene could be passed on to their future children as well.