Warning: This article contains discussion of dementia and abortion which some readers may find distressing.
One member of The FTD Brothers has shared the emotional burden he’s been grappling with and the reasons behind his decision to resign from his job.
Jordan and Cian Adams, known as The FTD Brothers, experienced the loss of their mother to frontotemporal dementia (FTD) in 2016. They later discovered they also carry the genetic mutation linked to the disease.
In a video posted to social media on Sunday (March 9), Jordan shared: “I’m a 29-year-old who recently quit his full-time job. I didn’t quit my job for reasons like most – getting out the corporate world to find a purpose – my purpose came from heartbreak.”
Jordan said his ‘life was changed forever’ when his mother received a diagnosis of ‘a rare type’ of FTD at age 47 in June 2010.
FTD is a less common form of dementia that often begins at a younger age, and actor Bruce Willis has also been diagnosed with it.
Jordan continued: “And ever since that day life has thrown more and more s**t at me.”
“It’s been incredibly difficult to manage – at 15 years of age, I was my mom’s primary carer along with my two siblings and my dad.”
“We cared for mom for six years in the family home until she eventually lost her life in March 2016 at the age of 52.”
After his mother’s passing when he was 23, Jordan discovered he was ‘a carrier of a genetic mutation which means [he] too will live with FTD’.
“I’ll experience symptoms in my forties and start to lose my life by the time I’m 45,” Jordan says. “As you can imagine, that’s an incredible tough burden to carry and it’s the main reason why at 29 years of age, I’ve decided to quit my job, get out the rat race and try and change the world of dementia.”
Since learning of his condition in 2018, Jordan has been taking on ‘running challenges,’ starting with a marathon, to channel the adversity into ‘something incredibly positive’ and work towards finding ‘a cure for all types of dementia’.
However, after completing his first challenge, he learned that his brother was ‘diagnosed with the same gene mutation’ and will also face FTD in his 40s.
Jordan explains that he and his wife chose to terminate their pregnancy after discovering their child was also ‘a carrier of the genetic mutation’.
https://www.tiktok.com/@username/video/7479723016474168598
Despite the ‘last 15 years of [his] life’ being ‘pretty s**t,’ Jordan wishes to use his online platform to demonstrate that regardless of your situation and the challenges you face, you have a choice in how you deal with them.
“I wanna show people that you can still be overwhelmingly positive. You can still enjoy life and get the most out of every moment that we have and that it is a privilege to be here in the first place.”
Having left his job, Jordan is now focusing full-time on his advocacy mission and has plans with his brother to run a marathon in each county in Ireland in 2026.
Jordan concludes: “The big dream is to run coast-to-coast America for a cure and take this mission global but more than anything, I want to create a legacy so when the time comes and I leave this Earth, people remember The FTD Brothers and the foundation we set up.”
To support The FTD Brothers on their journey, you can donate to their GoFundMe.