ELISE Elder once thought of someone living with dementia as "very old".

But her assumption recently changed when her mother Denise was diagnosed with dementia.

"Mum is too young, she is only 75," Ms Elder said. "I am too young to have a mother living with dementia.

"It's an old person's disease until it isn't."

It was only a few years ago that Denise first began noticing changes within herself...