Father Suffers From Alzheimer’s. What His Son Did For Him Moved Millions On Facebook…

As interest started to rise, Simon – seeing the potential to ‘make a few bob for charity’ linked the video to a JustGiving charity donation site.

‘I thought we might raise about £500 but I set a target of £1,000, for the Alzheimer’s Society because it doesn’t hurt to be ambitious,’ he tells me. To date, the father-and-son combo on the JustGiving site have raised almost £150,000 and the figure is still rising.

There is, even more, to come when the proceeds from the record sales, broadcast time and downloads come rolling in – the royalties are to be split between the Alzheimer’s Society and the McDermott family.

Teddy Mac’s sudden rise to fame began after an executive from Decca who stumbled on the clip, was blown away by Teddy’s voice and signed him up within days.

On a whim, he put his dad’s in-car version of Quando, Quando, Quando on Facebook. His friends, ‘many of whom didn’t even know my dad was a singer’, were gob-smacked.

‘It’s mind-blowing,’ admits Simon. ‘It’s all been such a whirl. My only wish is that Dad could understand it more. I mean he knows SOMETHING is happening. He talks about being in the recording studios – he’s proud as punch. But he’s muddled about it too. When we were there he told the musicians – some of whom have played with Frank Sinatra himself – that he could get them a gig in Wednesbury, for £50 a night.’

By rights, Ted should be here too, in a London pub, talking about his exciting record deal. That he isn’t, pains his son, but you can understand why he can’t be.

It’s all been such a whirl. My only wish is that Dad could understand it more. I mean he knows SOMETHING is happening
‘You don’t know what you are going to get with Dad,’ Simon explains. ‘He can come out with anything.

‘The other day he told someone his father was a millionaire with ten homes. He can be flamboyant, and seem quite lucid, but then he’ll ask me who I am, or he’ll become distressed or confused. I have to protect him.’

He has turned down every offer – and there have been many, from all over the world – for Ted to appear on chat-show sofas.

‘We have no idea what could happen and I don’t want Dad to be a laughing stock. I want him to have dignity. The Alzheimer’s has taken so much of his dignity already. But it kills me that he isn’t here. He would love all this.’

Teddy Mac’s sudden rise to fame began after an executive from Decca who stumbled on the clip, was blown away by Teddy’s voice and signed him up within days.

Actually, the story of how they got here is Simon’s as much as it is Ted’s – a story about the love of a son for his father. Simon struggles to tell it without crying, though.

He spends our entire time together with his eyes brimming. Little wonder. The account of Teddy’s takeover by this awful condition is heartbreaking. Altzheimer’s turns sufferers into unrecognizable versions of themselves, and it has with Teddy.

‘I knew nothing about it before Dad was diagnosed. I thought it was about old people forgetting things,’ says Simon.

‘But Dad just isn’t Dad anymore. He gets angry, he can be violent. We’ve had terrible, awful episodes where I have actually come to the point of thinking ‘this man is going to kill me’. Dealing with it has been the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to do.’

Even telling the truth about this brutal condition publicly feels like a betrayal of the father he loves. Every so often Simon stops and reminds me ‘of course, this is the Alzheimer’s, not Dad. That’s not who he was, is’.’

The account of Teddy’s takeover by this awful condition is heartbreaking. Altzheimer’s turns sufferers into unrecognizable versions of themselves, and it has with Teddy.

You can understand perfectly, though, why Simon wanted to record his dad, while he still could. ‘At some point along the way, I realized that when I was listening to him sing, he was my Dad again, he was back,’ he says. ‘I want to hold onto that for as long as I can’.

Teddy Mac’s astonishing story began in the clubs of the Midlands. The eldest of 14 children he was something of a Pied Piper, looking after his brothers and sisters and constantly being the family entertainer.

He had a great voice – and could have gone all the way. ‘When he was 17 or 18 he got invited to audition for the Carroll Levis show which was the X-Factor of the day, but his family couldn’t afford for him to go,’ says Simon.

Instead, a career in local clubs in the Midlands beckoned. ‘He’d organize bookings – getting Ken Dodd was a big coup – but he also had a band himself, Teddy Mac and the Starliners, and everyone in Wednesbury knew them.

Then he was scouted by Butlins and got a job working at their holiday camps, first in Barry Island, then in Blackpool, where he met my mum.’

Every so often Simon stops and reminds me ‘of course, this is the Alzheimer’s, not Dad. That’s not who he was, is”.

The big time never came calling, and when Simon was little, and the family had settled in Blackburn, his dad took a factory job and the singing became a part-time venture. It was always his first love, though.

‘All I ever remember him doing was singing,’ admits Simon, with a smile. ‘Ironically, he was known for his memory. He knew the words to thousands of songs, so he’d never run out of material.

Recently I called him the Songaminuteman online because he can still keep going forever, from one song straight into the next. My abiding memory as a child is of watching him do this amazing medley, which seemed never-ending. The whole place was on its feet, everyone in the room was cheering.’

Of course, when he hit teenage years, Simon was more embarrassed by his dad’s singing than proud of it. ‘I was a Brit Pop kid,’ he recalls. ‘I was also very different to Dad. He was a born entertainer, a bit of a Jack the Lad. I was quite a serious child, a bit of a swot, quite square. It’s only as I’ve grown up that I can look back and think ‘bloody hell, my Dad was amazing. He really was, is.’

Teddy Mac’s astonishing story began in the clubs of the Midlands. The eldest of 14 children he was something of a Pied Piper, looking after his brothers and sisters and constantly being the family entertainer.