Dementia From an Insider's Perspective

Christine Bryden

Christine Now

Christine continues to give talks locally, nationally, and internationally to conferences, community, and professional groups.

Please contact Christine at christine@christinebryden.com if you would like her to meet your group or organisation.

Christine has attended and has spoken at the following Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI ) conferences :

Christchurch, New Zealand, 2001
Barcelona, Spain, 2002
Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, 2003
Kyoto, Japan, 2004
Istanbul, Turkey, 2005
Berlin, Germany, 2006
Toronto, Canada, 2011

Why the gap between Berlin 2006 and Toronto 2011?

She became exhausted by the years of advocacy, nationally and internationally, from 1999 through to 2007 (when she spoke in Sapporo, Japan). Christine spent a few years resting and recuperating, wondering if she would ever be able to attend an international conference again.
Christine surprised herself and others by being well enough to attend the 25th ADI conference in Greece. It was a wonderful reunion with friends in Thessaloniki. Her global “Alzheimer’s Family” welcomed her with open arms, particularly the Chairman of ADI, Dr Daisy Acosta. Indeed, shortly before finding out that Christine was going to attend this 2010 conference, Dr Acosta had written the following:

(Welcome Message Programme and Abstract Booklet 25th International Conference of Alzheimer’s Disease International 10-13 March 2010-06-20 Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Greece.)

" Every year ADI encourages the involvement of people with dementia in the annual conference. I would like to thank those people with dementia who have helped us so much throughout the years in making our conferences a success, helping us to understand what it is like to live with dementia and what issues to address to make their lives better. I want to specifically acknowledge the work of Christine Bryden and express how much we have missed her input into our conferences. We hope we can continue to learn from and build upon the feedback received from people with dementia in the future."

Christine has been delighted to see how much progress the worldwide Alzheimers movement has made in including people with dementia at conferences, and in increasing the level of encouragement and support. She plans to attend the ADI conference in London in 2012 - Alzheimer’s Disease International

Click here to read Christine's article penned in January 2012 for a Japanese magazine.

Christine was recently nominated for the Australian of the Year Award, and was the Qld finalist in the senior category - QLD Finalist

Click here to see the latest high-resolution MRI scan, taken by Neuroscience Research Australia, in Sydney in September 2011. The comparison of an age-matched normal is on the right, to show how much damage there is to Christine's brain which is on the left.

A few years ago, Christine, through DASNI, was in frequent contact with the Harvard PhD neuroscientist Lisa Genova, when she was writing her first book “Still Alice”. This amazing fictional story describes how a 50 year old Harvard professor who has 3 grown up children is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s. It draws on Lisa’s insights through communicating with people living with Alzheimer’s and other dementias, as well as uniquely her own professional expertise in neurology. Lisa and Christine met in May 2011 in Brisbane, and had a wonderful few hours together. Lisa Genova's website