Small Colombian town on the verge of dementia cure | 60 Minutes Australia
5,811The most precious thing in Chontell Johnson’s life is her beautiful two-year-old daughter, Te Maumahara. It's a Maori name meaning “To remember”, which in all likelihood is something 38-year-old Chontell is going to forget very soon. That’s because she was born with a genetic mutation that has given her a 98 per cent chance of developing early onset Alzheimer’s disease. Chontell inherited the condition from her mother, who died from Alzheimer’s at 47, and there's a 50 per cent chance she has passed it on to her daughter. Cruelly, 244 Aussies are diagnosed with dementia every day and the number is rising. But there is hope. Liam Bartlett travels to a very special town in the mountains of Colombia to meet an Australian scientist on the verge of a breakthrough to defeat dementia for good.
Reporter: Liam Bartlett
Producers: Steve Jackson