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Helen Stewart is a former TV star who married Scottish F1 driver Jackie Stewart in 1962. Jackie and Helen met as teenagers at Dino's Cafe in their hometown of Helensburgh in Scotland.
Helen became the timer of Jackie's life for over 60 years. She had a razor-sharp mind and technique in timing his laps to the precision of a millisecond with astounding accuracy.
Helen witnessed the terrible crashes and deaths of F1 drivers on the track during race weekends and realized the danger involved in the sport. Helen supported one of Jackie Stewart's successful campaigns for improving the safety of drivers on the racetrack after the three-time World Champion retired from racing in 1973.
She once said:
“Without me, he wouldn’t be World Champion!”
As an actress, Helen is known for her works like Seven Days Too Long (1968), The Wicked Die Show (1968), and a documentary of her husband, Jackie Stewart, Weekend of a Champion (1972).
Jackie and Helen have two children, Paul and Mark Stewart. Paul Stewart followed in his father's footsteps and became a race car driver, and Mark Stewart owns a movie production studio.
How Helen Stewart led the rest of her life with short-term dementia
Helen Stewart was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) in 2014. Her short-term memory and dementia plagued her mind and body. Helen's health condition wreaked havoc on the Stewart family.
Talking about his wife in several interviews, Jackie has always praised her. He once said:
“I have been fortunate to have a wonderful career, and my wife Helen was by my side through it all,"
Speaking about his wife's health condition and how the family is coping with it, Jackie said:
“We should have been able to share those memories forever, but dementia steals that away. Without urgent progress, one in three people born today will go on to suffer dementia, and that is unacceptable.”
Helen cannot walk without aid, can't dress herself, and struggles to remember and recognize her home and members of her family. Jackie's youngest son, Mark, said that witnessing his mother lose her memory of her family is hard to bear for him.
According to Daily Record, as reported by Jenny Morrison, Mark said:
“When my mum first started showing signs of illness, we didn’t really know what was happening and we weren’t thinking dementia. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when my mum started to show signs of the condition but the reality is over time it takes more and more of the person you love."
