Alastair Stewart: Jon Snow revealing his Alzheimer's diagnosis should give others hope

His predecessor as presenter of Channel 4 News, Peter Sissons, had been a closer friend, as we worked together on many ITV network programmes covering General Elections and other major events. Channel 4 News was never an easy programme.

Like Channel 4 itself, it was established to be different and to challenge the mainstream offerings from the BBC and ITV. The original team of reporters and producers had little television experience and the output was dreadful.

Audiences were so small they barely registered on the BARB ratings. Peter once jokingly asked whether it might be cheaper and less stressful simply to photocopy the scripts and send them to anyone who was interested.

Peter was eventually poached by the BBC, where he became anchor of the Lunchtime News and later host of Question Time. Jon Snow was part of the shake-up that transformed the programme.

I joined for a while and got to know Jon quite well. He was an old-school lefty, more Labour than hard-left "Trot".

He disapproved of heavy drinking and smoking, but we'd often bump into each other when I popped out for a cigarette after smoking had been banned inside ITN. We'd talk about all sorts of things.

We seldom agreed, but I respected his intellect and his consistency. He always urged me to stop smoking.

I wish I'd listened, as years of heavy smoking contributed to my developing dementia. I marked my sadness on social media with a photograph taken during the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Jon was there for Channel 4 News; I was there for the ITN bulletins at 5.45 and 10 o'clock. The excellent John Suchet was also there as a reporter and former Lunchtime News anchor.

John Suchet's first wife died with dementia. I have vascular dementia, and Jon Snow has Alzheimer's.

Three old friends and brothers-in-arms, all touched by this cruel condition in different ways. Jon has also made a documentary about his diagnosis and what it is like living with Alzheimer's.

We were invited to the premiere but declined. I can't stand ITN gatherings these days.

The real friends from those days keep in touch anyway. The week ended with the dramatic resignation of Defence Secretary John Healey.

Defence has always been a difficult area for Labour, given the party's historic doubts about NATO and the nuclear deterrent. At the end of the Cold War, which the nuclear deterrent helped to win, there was much talk of a "peace dividend".

Labour spent that dividend many times over, and now there is a shortfall in what is needed simply to keep the country and our armed services safe. Healey made it clear this was a Starmer and Reeves problem, and he felt he had to resign.

It was a rare moment of honesty and integrity from a modern politician. Unlike Michael Heseltine or Wes Streeting, he was not resigning in pursuit of the leadership.

He resigned because he believed a misguided policy was putting the country at risk. I've always liked and admired Healey.

Apart from his long-standing interest in defence, he also took a keen interest in housing, adult learning and disability issues. He once shared an office with my friend Charles Clarke, and the two became lifelong friends.

Clarke always told me Healey was one to watch under Starmer.

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