Dying rhododendron

This is so sad. The lovely pinky-purple rhododendron on the north drive has been infected by the Phytophthora fungus. It's the third one (all in different parts of the yard) that we've lost this year. Our neighbours have also lost them. I'm not sure if it's just this particular variety that has been affected, but these were all old, well-established specimens.
This is what it looked like back in May this year



If you look really closely you can see the start of the problem - a little brown section on one stem at the top of the plant. But really there was nothing to warn us that five months later we would be facing the sorry, dying plant we have now.
I'm off to dig it out and destroy the remains. Too sad.