AN EASTENDERS legend made a shock return to the soap today – just days after quitting Walford.
Nigel Bates – who is played by actor Paul Bradley in the BBC soap – said an emotional farewell to Albert Square last week after being reunited with estranged wife Julie.
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Viewers know Nigel is suffering from dementia and left Julie rather than let her see his decline.
He returned to Walford at Christmas and has been cared for by old pal Phil Mitchell in the months since.
Last week Jay Brown discovered Julie had been desperately searching for Nigel and had reported him missing.
He got in contact and summoned her to Walford where she discovered the truth about Nigel’s condition.
Determined to care for him as his wife, Julie convinced Nigel to return to Scotland to their life and promised to look after him.
However just days into their reunion, Nigel went missing again – not able to remember who Julie was nor why he was with her.
In tonight’s double bill of the soap, Julie made a shock return to Walford searching for Nigel once more.
He’d done a runner in the train station as they travelled back up to Edinburgh.
Julie ran to Walford and found Phil to see if Nigel had returned there.
And it wasn’t long until he did with Callum finding him at the tube station.
EastEnders’ Nigel Bates reveals heartbreaking truth about his dementia battle as soap teases another comeback after 27 years
Nigel later told Phil that he wanted to stay, and in a heartbreaking moment couldn’t remember who Julie was – leading Phil to make a shock offer.
He asked Julie to stay too – and invited her to move in so they could both stay with Nigel and help him.
Is it ageing or dementia?
Dementia – the most common form of which is Alzheimer’s – comes on slowly over time.
As the disease progresses, symptoms can become more severe.
But at the beginning, the symptoms can be subtle or mistaken for normal memory issues related to ageing.
The US National Institute on Aging gives some examples of what is considered normal forgetfulness in old age, and dementia disease.
You can refer to these above.
For example, it is normal for an ageing person to forget which word to use from time-to-time, but difficulties having conversation would be more indicative of dementia.
Katie Puckering, Head of Alzheimer’s Research UK’s Information Services team, previously told The Sun: “We quite commonly as humans put our car keys somewhere out of the ordinary and it takes longer for us to find them.
“As you get older, it takes longer for you to recall, or you really have to think; What was I doing? Where was I? What distracted me? Was it that I had to let the dog out? And then you find the keys by the back door.
“That process of retrieving the information is just a bit slower in people as they age.
“In dementia, someone may not be able to recall that information and what they did when they came into the house.
“What may also happen is they might put it somewhere it really doesn’t belong. For example, rather than putting the milk back in the fridge, they put the kettle in the fridge.”
