Barbara Windsor's legacy: better knowledge and treatement of Alzheimer's

The death of Dame Barbara Windsor last Thursday at the age of 83 brought the nation together in an extraordinary way. Even though she had been ill, battling Alzheimer’s for several years, news that she had died eclipsed both the Covid 19 pandemic and  the nail-biting Brexit negotiations in the news agendas.
It also brought a wave of nostalgia from a generation who grew up watching her in the Carry On films and her many present day fans for whom she will always be the indomitable Peggy Mitchell, landlady of the EastEnders Queen Vic pub.
Barbara Windsor’s career milestones are embedded in British popular culture and for many she will alway be either a bubbly blonde - a seaside postcard brought to life - or a tough talking East End matriarch.  
The reality of course was a little more nuanced. Born in the east end of London just before before the Second World War, Barbara proved her ability as a talented actress with Joan Littlewood’s famed Theatre Workshop in Stratford East.  It would be the Carry On films though that propelled her career to wider success.
While EastEnders, in which she first appeared in 2004, consolidated her credentials as an experienced and able performer. Perhaps her greatest legacy though will be that in being able to open up and talk about her dementia she has sparked a serious debate on the need to fund research into and treatment of the terrible disease that is Alzheimer’s