20.07.2026
Ming’s story: "I've got so much experience that I think it would be a waste not to use it to have a positive impact through research"
Ming Ho’s 2 decade-long experience as a sole carer for her mum reveals the emotional effect dementia can have.
Ming’s mum, Glenys Ho, lived with dementia for more than 20 years. She died in 2020 at the age of 93. She did not receive a formal diagnosis until Ming needed to take legal control of her affairs, to arrange residential care in 2011. Glenys was never able to submit to medical tests, so had to be diagnosed by the observations of a clinical psychiatrist. It was then that she was diagnosed with mixed Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia.
In 1988, Ming's father, Wai Kwong Ho, died from cancer at just 52, when Ming was about to graduate from university. At the time, Glenys was in her early 60s and approaching retirement. Ming believes the onset of her mother’s dementia can be traced to this trauma.
A scriptwriter who worked on major TV productions like EastEnders and Casualty, Ming was the sole family carer for her mum. She would commute back and forth to support Glenys in their family home 100 miles away from her flat in London. She increasingly spent long periods there as her mother's condition deteriorated. This led to her being no longer able to keep up with her screenwriting career.
She explained: "I think that a large part of my problem throughout was that I was the only person dealing with it. I was her sole carer and her sole immediate family, and she was never able to acknowledge her own incapacity.
“I couldn't say to people, 'My mum has dementia. This is what's happening', because I felt it would be disloyal to her, when she couldn't acknowledge it herself."
From 2012, Ming became involved in dementia research and advisory roles, shortly after her mum entered a care home. She has also spoken at various conferences to share her perspective. To explore the emotional and psychological aspect of her experience, she also wrote a play called 'The Things We Never Said', which was broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It won the Writers’ Guild Best Radio Drama Award 2018.
Ming signed up to Join Dementia Research to ensure that her lived experience could help others. Since her mother's death, she has continued to take part in numerous projects. These include a study on how we can design wearable tech that improves everyday life for people with dementia, involving the caregivers' perspective.
She said: "Caring is often reframed as ‘a privilege’ and ‘an honour’, but I don't really understand that point of view. For me, it was a necessary thing that unquestionably I had to do, because I loved my mum and I wanted to protect her; but I won't deny that it was hard or that it has had a lasting impact on me."
Taking part in research, she feels, has given her purpose and broadened her understanding of dementia.
She continues: "I've got so much experience that I think it would be a waste not to use it to have a positive impact through research, because I've gone through the whole journey.
"I think I can find positives in the experience, in all that I have learned about dementia and about humanity in general - all the people I've met through dementia campaigning and research, including other carers, medics, scientists, and dementia professionals - that I feel that maybe in some ways I'm a better person for having learned those things.”
Interested in taking part in dementia research?
You can register your interest in other vital dementia research via the Join Dementia Research website. By taking part, you could make a huge difference for future generations.
