Best known for her roles in EastEnders and the Carry On films, Dame Barbara Windsor has sadly passed away, aged 83.
In a statement, her husband Scott Mitchell confirmed she had died peacefully from Alzheimer’s at a London care home on Thursday evening. She had been diagnosed with the disease in 2014 and had moved to a care home earlier this year.
Mr Mitchell said she would be remembered for the “love, fun, friendship and brightness she brought to all our lives”.
After she was diagnosed with dementia Dame Barbara became an ambassador for the Alzheimer’s Society. During her time as an ambassador, she met up with Prime Minster Boris Johnson to highlight her concerns and raise awareness of the disease.
Barbara personally delivered a letter which had been signed by 100,000 people pleading for better care for people affected by dementia. Barbara said the current system was “completely inadequate, unfair, unsustainable and in dire need of more money”.
Mr Mitchell, who supported her and joined in her campaign to raise awareness of the disease, said:
“It was not the ending that Barbara or anyone else living with this very cruel disease deserve.
“I will always be immensely proud of Barbara’s courage, dignity and generosity dealing with her own illness and still trying to help others by raising awareness for as long as she could.”
Back in 2015, the Solicitors for the Elderly Annual Conference was one to remember as Dame Barbara attended the event. Lakshmi Turner, chief executive for Solicitors for the Elderly (SFE) recalls the special moment. She said:
“At our 2015 SFE National Conference “Carry on Caring,” to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his amazing charity, Contact the Elderly (now Re-engage), we invited its founder and long-time member of SFE, Trevor Lyttleton to give the keynote address. As I knew Dame Barbara was a great supporter of the charity, I asked him to ask her whether she’d come along as well.
“The reply I got back was that she would come, but that she was a little nervous and did not want to do any speaking. I did find this a bit strange at the time. Little did I know what was actually happening to her. To my great delight, she came to the conference at around lunchtime, sat with members and chatted vivaciously with them. After Trevor had given his keynote address, Barbara joined him on stage and then something amazing happened – not only did Barbara lose any sign of nerves, but she started talking and singing and managed to get the usually quite stiff SFE audience to sing with her. It was an experience we will all cherish forever – that wonderful giggle, that beaming smile and a feeling of warmth and love radiating from her that completely filled the room.”
Dame Barbara appeared in nine of the 31 films in the comedy series Carry On, and Sparrows Can’t Sing, for which she was nominated for a Bafta, as well as small parts in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and On the Fiddle with Sir Sean Connery.
