Barbara Windsor has been moved to tears by the support she’s received since it was revealed she’s suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease.
The 80-year-old actress’ husband Scott Mitchell spoke out last week about his beloved wife’s battle with the degenerative brain condition, and the couple have been overwhelmed with kind messages from fans.
Jane Moore, who conducted the interview for The Sun newspaper, told her fellow panellists on UK TV show ‘Loose Women’: "Barbara’s issue at the minute, the storm she’s going through at the moment – the latest deteriorating – her short term memory is not great.
"One of Scott’s issues was he’d discussed it with Barbara and her specialist about going public to make their life easier, so when she did see the response [from the public] she was overwhelmed and got a bit tearful, because I guess she’d almost forgotten it was going to happen.
"[Scott] said with all the responses, letters and tweets, every time he shows them to her, she just gets so thrilled, she just keeps saying, ‘I’m helping people.’ "
And Jane – who revealed charity Alzheimer’s Society had seen donations boosted by a third since the news of Barbara’s condition was revealed – believes making the news public has been very helpful to Scott because he’s realised how kind people will be to him and the former ‘EastEnders’ star when they go out.
She added: "
He is hugely relieved I think; when we were doing the interview he got very upset because it was that combination between a release because he hadn’t talked about it before and he felt guilt, his whole instinct was to protect her.
"But now he realises he is protecting her even more, because now when they go out – and she hasn’t been out since the interview broke, but Scott has – he said literally every two feet down the street people were stopping him and saying, ‘You’ve got our support’, so when she does go out, everyone is going to be giving her a collective hug."
The journalist also directly sent her "love" to the ‘Carry On’ actress, as she knew she’d be tuning into the show.
She said: "I know she’s watching the show, so Barbara, we send you our love and well done for talking about it, both of you, because you’ve helped so many people."
Barbara Windsor moved by support
