CANTERBURY-born GMTV anchorwoman Fiona Phillips is coming back to her roots to support a cause close to her heart.

She is attending the first ever concert given by the Welsh Male Voice Choir at Canterbury Cathedral, hosted by the Alzheimer’s Society on Saturday, January 8.

She told reporter the sad story behind her reasons for supporting the charity.

Fiona Phillips’ mother Amy was a strong character, who was so fiercely proud of her offspring’s TV career that she would tap people on the shoulder in shop queues and ask: ‘Do you know my daughter?’

She kept so many videos of Fiona’s on-screen appearances that when her daughter visited in the flesh, family friends would joke they were sick of the sight of her.

But tragically Amy Phillips developed Alzheimer’s Disease, which causes dementia, and is now unable to recognise the celebrity daughter she was so proud of.

Amy and Neville ‘Phil’ Phillips married at St Paul’s Church in Canterbury, and were living in the city when Fiona was born 43 years ago.

Mr Phillips worked for the early TV manufacturer Rediffusion, and Fiona remembers being one of the first families in her street in St Stephen’s to own a television. They stayed until she was about eight years old and her father’s work took them to Brighton.

Fiona has fond memories of attending Kingsmead Primary School, and visiting her grandparents who lived at what was then the Duke’s Head pub in Wincheap.

“I think the pub became an antiques shop. When we left Canterbury my grandparents Reg and Edith still lived there, so we used to visit them. They both lived and died in Canterbury.

“We used to walk everywhere, it is such a lovely city. But I haven’t been back for years as life is so busy, so I can’t wait to see all the old haunts.”

But sadly it is her mother’s illness that brings Fiona back to her birthplace, to support the Alzheimer’s Society fundraising concert at Canterbury Cathedral.

Looking back, the family now recognises Amy was showing the early signs of dementia long before it was diagnosed as Alzheimer’s, at the relatively young age of 64.

“Now we look back we can see all the signs were there, but we just thought it was Mum being eccentric. She was only 63 or 64 which is quite young, although some people are affected earlier.

“She is now 71 and is at the stage where she doesn’t know us or speak much, although she will sometimes ask us: ‘Are you my husband?’, or, ‘Are you my daughter?’”

Fiona bears the painful memory of being angry when her mother stayed with her in London to ‘help’ her with her first son Nathaniel, born in 1999, before being diagnosed with the degenerative illness.

“I was really mean to her, I said it was like having another child in the house. It must have been quite advanced, she was getting lost in the house and forgetting things, but you just don’t think about it happening to your Mum, you tend to think it happens to other people.

“There were other signs too - she couldn’t work the toaster, she walked into the wrong rooms. She always used to bake cakes from memory without a recipe, and I remember her phoning me one night in tears because she couldn’t remember the recipe.

"She used to cry for no reason a lot. She knew something was wrong and she didn’t feel right, but when she went to the doctors at first she was put on anti-depressants and she really suffered, that was the worst part.”

Once diagnosed, Amy’s condition became gradually worse and she now requires round-the-clock care at a residential home in Wales, where her parents had settled.

“It makes me feel terribly guilty, and there is a lot of bombing up and down the M4 - I have just been this weekend,” said Fiona, who lives in Battersea.

She presents the early morning show from Monday to Thursday and accepts that were she to move closer to her mother in Wales now, it would not be of any benefit.

“My father still lives in Wales and still sees her, but he finds it very difficult. She stopped recognising members of the family about a year ago, but that’s not the hardest part - that would just be an ego thing. The hardest part was seeing her suffer over the years.

“I’m not worried she doesn’t recognise me, although it’s a shame she doesn’t get the comfort of recognising her family. It’s easier now because she seems more at peace.”

* Tickets for the Canterbury Cathedral concert are available by sending an email to concert@alzheimers.org.uk or by calling 0207 306 0794.

Prices range from £9-25. The concert starts at 7.30pm.