Pilot Brent Meredith opens up about dementia diagnosis
Former Virgin pilot Brent Meredith flew the world's biggest jets for 20 years, until a devastating diagnosis at age 56 forced him to surrender his wings forever.
Brent Meredith was born to fly. Having gotten his pilot’s licence at 16, he went on to be one of the first pilots for Virgin’s Australian arm Virgin Blue – later renamed Virgin Australia.
Captain Meredith would be at the controls for 20 years, flying both 737s and 777s.
But a cruel dementia diagnosis would not only rob him of his wings – but change his whole view on life.
“My favourite airport to fly into was Los Angeles,” Mr Meredith told news.com.au.
“Being one of the largest and busiest airports in the world. It is both challenging and a fast-paced airspace to fly into. It was often fogged in and having to hold for long periods of time made it difficult for the pilots, cabin crew and the passengers.” Mr Meredith, who is throwing his support behind news.com.au and The Australian’s Think Again campaign, said.
LA was also his favourite lay over destination.
It was during one of these lay overs in LA at the beginning of 2020, where Mr Meredith contracted Covid-19 just before Australia’s international borders closed down.
By the end of that same year, he was made redundant when Virgin Australia decided to shut down their long-haul operations.
Mr Meredith and his wife Karen Dalton relocated from their home on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast to help Ms Dalton’s father care for his wife Barbara who was living with dementia.
But just six months after her passing in October 2023, Mr Meredith would receive his own diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease in April 2024. He was just 56.
Mr Meredith sought to return to domestic flying in Australia, however it was more challenging than was expected.
He said friends in the industry would make comments such as “we want you to fly for us but we want the old Brent” – comments which made him feel “unworthy and incompetent”.
“It affected my self esteem,” Mr Meredith said.
“I didn’t know what was happening as I still felt like my old self. Though I was aware that I was performing a little bit slower than previously I just assumed that this was because I hadn’t been current in an aircraft for a while.
“My GP referred me for a brain MRI yet nothing unusual was detected,” he said.
A battery of blood tests revealed low iron levels.
But it was during simulator training at Boeing for the 737-Max in Miami in a bid to join Bonza as a pilot that it became obvious that Mr Meredith’s mild cognitive impairment was more than low iron levels.
During the first day of training a SIM (Simulator) Instructor asked Mr Meredith: ‘Has something happened to you? Have you had a stroke or something?’
“What should have been very easy for me was extremely difficult. When asked what does this dial do I found that I couldn’t give them a clear answer,” Mr Meredith said.
“The chief pilot of Bonza was very understanding when I couldn’t complete the course. I was given time off to find the reason why I wasn’t performing so well. However, I resigned as I felt embarrassed that I could no longer perform so well in the cockpit.”
Big Aussie killer no one’s talking about
Massive breakthrough in dementia fight
Ms Dalton said the couple returned to Australia and “kept digging and trying to find out why Brent wasn’t getting better”.
“Nothing was found in a second MRI,” she said.
“Last year in April Brent went for his medical as they do every year for flying and the Aviation doctor pulled Brent’s flying licence, his driver’s licence, everything from him there on the spot. No conversation about it.
“We only had an official diagnosis last year. It was put down to so many other things – stress, different environment and then it was like perhaps low iron was causing the mild cognitive impairment,” she said.
“Dementia wasn’t ever mentioned.
“So it was about a four-year run-around trying to work out what it was but at least we know now. Having a diagnosis has helped.”
The couple said having dementia care navigators would take a lot of the bureaucratic burden off families as they focused on coming to terms with the diagnosis and what challenges that brings.
“When the neurologist confirmed Brent’s diagnosis at the hospital he just gave us a whole list of blood tests to do, shook our hands and said ‘good luck’,” Ms Dalton said.
“We said ‘well can you point us to where we go to get these blood tests’ and he said ‘sorry I don’t know’ and walked off.
“We were just standing there in the hospital corridor, our whole world had just turned upside down, we felt very alone and unsupported in that moment.”
The couple then sort out information for themselves by joining various online forums both in Australia and overseas, before finally connecting with Dementia Australia.
Ms Dalton has scaled back her full-time job as a teacher to help care for Mr Meredith, who himself is desperate to work.
“Trying to find employment – that’s been horrific,” Ms Dalton said
“All Brent wants to do is work. We’ve tried every avenue. Brent would be happy just outside with a blower getting rid of leaves of a path, but unfortunately we haven’t been able to find a position for him.”
The shock diagnosis has made them reassess their priorities and focus on what brings them joy.
“Even though we have been forced to retire and semi retire we actively stay committed to enjoying our lives and creating new memories and travelling together while we can,” Ms Dalton said.
“A diagnosis stopped a lot of the questioning and we’ve accepted I guess and we just realise that life hasn’t stopped.”
For Mr Meredith that includes improving his fitness.
“That’s probably the best thing I started doing – getting fitter and happier and getting new things to do all the time and travel,” Mr Meredith said.
But rather than fly the plane, Mr Meredith is the passenger – visiting countries including Japan, the Cook Islands, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia,
and Singapore.
The couple is about to go island hopping across the Pacific and go on their first cruise.
“We make sure that we keep posting photos of Brent on Facebook of things we are doing and we keep putting the hashtag “youngeronsetalzheimers” especially for the flying community, to help bring awareness to his diagnosis.” Ms Dalton said.
“His old colleagues call him up and invite him out for a coffee with the flight crew all the time. They still call him Captain, which makes him happy” she said.
Price of groundbreaking drug slashed
‘Sickening’: Deadly detail in backyard pic
