THESE powerful pictures lie behind a heartbreaking story only too familiar to hundreds of thousands of families across the UK.

Photographer Mark Edwards has been charting the effect of Alzheimer’s disease on his 74-year-old mother, once a vibrant and outgoing woman, through poignant images telling of her physical and mental degeneration.

The 50-year old, from Great Notley, has found himself grieving through his art. He hopes it will raise awareness of a disease which desperately needs more research and funding.

He also wants other Alzheimer’s sufferers, or their families, to contact him if they are willing to be photographed for the same reasons.

Although his mum June still lives in Nightingale care home, Crowstone Avenue, Westcliff, he said it feels as though, because of Alzheimer’s, the person he loves “slowly recedes, leaving their body behind – a person you no longer know, and who no longer knows you”. The father-of-three noticed signs of the condition before the diagnosis in 2006.

Mrs Edwards, who was still living at home with husband Don, became forgetful, vague and sometimes bad tempered.

She would go into the kitchen for water, then forget why she had gone. It got gradually worse.

Mr Edwards, a founder of Great Notley photographic club and a coach for the village football club, said: “One Christmas we were having tea. I was talking to mum and she was a bit vague. I went and sat somewhere else and she leaned across to dad and said: ‘Who is that chap that has been talking to me?’ I was upset and shocked. It hit home. It was a tough moment.”

There is no known cause of Alzheimer’s. In a poll of more than 2,000 people for Alzheimer’s Research, 35 per cent feared dementia more than anything, compared with 26 per cent who dreaded cancer.

Mr Edwards said his dad, who died last April, wanted the pictures published. Mr Edwards also feels sure his mum, who loved amateur dramatics and was a midday assistant at Hockley Primary School, would want people to understand what Alzheimer’s sufferers and their families go through.

Company director Mr Edwards recalled working on a picture called “birthday”, which he has published on photo-sharing website Flickr.

He wrote: “I shed tears for the first time over the partial loss of my mother.

“This precipitated my acceptance of her condition and the realisation that, even though she was still with me, there was also a grieving process I had to go through for the part of her that I had lost; acknowledging that fact somehow helped.”

At other times, he has felt conflicting emotions during visits. He wrote: “There is an element of guilt: Why can we not do more to help? Sometimes, I wonder who my visit really benefits. Mum could not pick me out in a line-up of three. But part of me feels there is some knowing deep inside that maybe she just cannot express.

“For that reason, I hope my visits serve a purpose for her, as well as for me.

“Maybe she can recognise my voice or even if she just has some feeling of familiarity.’’ Mr Edwards added: “Taking photographs of her helps keep me occupied. I can no longer have a meaningful, two-way conversation with her.

“It also helps to avoid the thought that regularly occurs: If only I could travel back in time and have one last, long chat.

“I would thank her for looking after me when I was a child...I would thank her for caring and believing in me...I just wish I could do as good a job for her as she did for me.”

Anyone interested in taking part in the photography project can e-mail mark@documentboss. com See his other pictures at http://tinyurl.com/49osvvl