Olwen Fouéré, the wife of Fair City star, David Heap has revealed that her husband has been diagnosed with a rare neurodegenerative disease.
David, who played Donal Maher in the RTE soap for several years, has been diagnosed with a condition called Corticobasal Syndrome.
His wife, Olwen who is also an actress shared the news in conversation with Joe Duffy on RTÉ’s The Meaning Of Life.
“I think it’s been building for a while,” she told presenter Joe.
“He knew there was something wrong and this particular disease, called Corticobasal Syndrome, it’s a particular type of protein that attacks the brain – so it’s a brain disease and it affects everything.
“The symptoms are similar to Parkinson’s. Similar to motor neurone, similar to all, you know, the whole spectrum. And it’s progressive and terminal,” she added.
Olwen, who recently starred opposite Jamie Dornan in season two of the popular BBC series The Tourist, admits that David took the news better than she did.
“I find it hard to talk about it without crying, and I remember we were in the room with the neurologist, and [when] they said that I wept,” she recalls.
“They were really great because they were telling him and … one of the symptoms of the disease is a kind of apathy. It’s a sort of passiveness, which is maybe a blessing.”
Olwen then opened up to Joe about how she cares for David telling him, “I know it’s very important [to remain working] to continue because that’s where my strength is.
“My strength will come from my work as well because you can get very sucked into the caring. The caring situation you become totally immersed in at every moment.
“And it’s very hard to pull yourself away from it.”