William "Bill" Yeates

After graduating from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Pharmacy, Bill entered the field of education where he was a school administrator and has taught senior Physics and Chemistry for over 35 years.

In August 2019, at the age of 59, he was diagnosed with Younger Onset Alzheimer’s Disease. Bill has a keen interest in learning how to best manage his diagnosis on a daily basis and has created his own website where he enjoys helping and showing others who are also living with dementia, how it is possible to ‘live well with dementia’. Besides being a volunteer surf lifesaver, Bill competes in masters Swimming, Finswimming, Pool Rescue and Surf Lifesaving Championships, at a local, state, national and international level. Bill also co-coaches with his twin brother, a group of teenagers in an event known as ‘Champion Lifesaver’. In 2023 Bill travelled to Fiji and participated in his first ever ocean water swim.

Currently, Bill works as a Living Experience Associate Consultant for Dementia Support Australia and is a non-executive director on the board of MADEC Ltd. He is also a member of Dementia Australia’s Advocate Program and has been Vice Chair of Dementia Alliance International. He is a member of the World Health Organisation GDO KE Focus Group, member of the Global Review Panel for ADI Accreditation of dementia care, member of the Public Involvement Panel for StepUp and a member of SIESTA Lived Experience Advisory Panel (SLEAP). Bill is also a member of the NSW Trustee and Guardian Advisory Board and HammondCare’s Quality Care Advisory Board (QCAB).

In the last few years, Bill has started to share his experiences at national and international conferences as a way of raising awareness about dementia, focussing mainly on post diagnostic care and support via his holistic approach to life and the development of reablement plans, as a way of living well with dementia.