What do you think about the Nigel storyline in Eastenders? Allison hopes he gets some peer support!

Hi everyone, my name’s Allison. I live in Dundonald, which is in Northern Ireland, and really just want to talk to you about EastEnders. And, to anybody who really would watch it, I have watched EastEnders since it started in 1985 and absolutely love it. And I think it is one of them programmes you absolutely love or you absolutely hate.

But at the moment, there’s a new storyline just started, and it’s about one of the characters, Nigel, who has been very recently given a dementia diagnosis. But he’s not accepting it at all, and to the extent that he hasn’t told any of his family–close family–or friends, and to the extent that he actually left home and lived for a period of time on the streets rather than to tell his wife, because he couldn’t bear the thought of her having to watch him decline.

He then made his way back to EastEnders, which is where he was originally from, and there he’s met up with some friends that he had known years and years ago. And he has told one of the characters about his dementia diagnosis and admitted to her how terrified he is and how he feels life is going to be from now on, really, and that he really can’t see a way of moving forward at all. And she’s trying to encourage him, trying to encourage him to open up and to actually tell people about his diagnosis.

My hope would be that EastEnders would go down the route of getting him the peer support he needs, of getting him the right information, giving him the opportunity to speak to others who have a dementia diagnosis and, through that, to say that there is very much life still to live and that he still can go on, and he has a lot still to offer, and there are things that he can still do, and more importantly, that he is still himself, that that has not changed it. And he can identify with that, and through that then have the courage to tell his family and friends and to get the support he needs from them as well, and that they would want to give to him.

So I’d be interested to hear what anybody else thinks about the storyline and how others would like to see it develop and progress. But take care, everyone. Lovely to speak to you, bye-bye.