VANCOUVER -- It took a $9.1-million donation to the University of B.C. for Alzheimer's disease research to persuade the family of Bill Bennett, the former premier of B.C., to publicly acknowledge that he is suffering from the debilitating brain disease.

His son Brad Bennett said Tuesday that the family initially intended to keep their private life private.

However, when they found out that Canadian diamond miner Charles (Chuck) Fipke was making such a big donation to help find a cure and promote treatment of Alzheimer's, it prompted them to speak out.

"Well, Chuck's gift inspired us to do it," Brad said in an interview.

"Part of his reason for (making the pledge) was because he found out about my dad's condition and he was moved by that. Chuck making the gift moved us significantly."

During a news conference Tuesday at UBC's Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, Brad publicly thanked Fipke and encouraged other families living with Alzheimer's and dementia to talk about it.

"If there is some good coming out of this, I would hope it would manifest in a number of ways," he said.

"One, that families can talk about it. The nature of a disease that affects mental capacity and the brain is somehow not talked about as much. There seems to be a stigma attached to that. So that's the first thing," he added.

"Hopefully, it encourages people to want to give to find a cure and better treatment."

Bennett, now 82, was premier of the province from 1975 to 1986. He was a controversial figure responsible for a number of major projects that include Expo 86, the SkyTrain and the Coquihalla Highway, as well as the 1983 restraint program, which led to the rise of the Solidarity movement and a near general strike in B.C.

Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia in older people. A terminal illness, it's an irreversible, progressive brain disease that slowly destroys a person's memory, ability to think and even carry out the simplest tasks.

Brad said his father was diagnosed with Alzheimer's about six or seven years ago. Looking back, he said his father had probably been showing signs for as many as three years before that.

"It was the usual stuff: forgetfulness, missing a hand at cards," he said about his father's early symptoms. "It was the day-to-day things that you notice."

He said the disease has progressed so that his father is no longer the vital, competitive and smart person he once was.

Brad said the nature of the disease is that it progressively takes away a person's mental faculties and personality over time. At some point, he said, family and friends say goodbye to the person they knew. That, he said, is very difficult to do.

Fipke said he donated the money to UBC after he saw Brad at a Christmas party and asked him how his father was doing. Brad told Fipke that he wasn't doing too well and that he had Alzheimer's.