Emmerdale fans break down in tears as devastating and confusing 'best ever episode' resurfaces
Emmerdale fans were left emotional after Ashley Thomas' dementia storyline resurfaced eight years later.
Ashley, who was the village priest was diagnosed with the brain disease, and the episode posted on the social media platform of TikTok, showed how the condition had started to take a hold of him.
When approached by a passerby, who noticed his distress, he hadn't realised she was trying to help him and instead offered his assistance, thinking she needed help. The episode left many tearful as it resonated with their own personal experiences. One person wrote in the comment section: "My mum had dementia and watching this just brings it all back for me. My mum took my nephew back to uni and was out driving for 9hrs trying to get home. I ended up phoning the police."
Another person said: "8 years ago and still remember how it made me feel the first time I saw it, so powerful." A third fan commented: "Ashley was my favourite I never normally cry at characters but his storyline made me shed so many tears my grandma had dementia." And a fourth person penned: "Iv not seen a soap do this since honestly the best storyline they have done."
Meanwhile a fifth person added: "This was the last episode of Emmerdale I watched, I knew they weren’t topping this." Ashley passed away in April 2017 after losing his battle with early onset vascular dementia. Actor John Middleton won many awards for his honest portrayal. He said at the time: "Most people have some experience of this disease. I’ve found it really quite astonishing, the number of people who have come up to me and said ‘Thankyou very much for doing that; my Dad had this’ or ‘My Mum died a few years ago and she had this.’"
Since leaving the show, John appeared in Doctors and he played a man suffering from dementia called Feargal Lumsden. He is also heavily involved in charity work, including supporting the Trussell Trust and Alzheimers Society with walks and runs.
In August 2020, he posted a picture of himself on X, aka Twitter, wearing an the Alzheimers Society charity t-shirt as he encouraged fans to go on a sponsored walk in a bid to raise money to combat the disease. Sat next to his pet pooch in the back of his car, he wrote: ""About to set off on my my Alzheimer’s Society Memory Walk today. Sign up for yours at memory at http://memorywalk.org.uk."
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