Pensioner Phyllis Filmore has told how she has come to rely on a charity to help her care for her husband Maurice, who has Alzheimer’s Disease.

As Alzheimer’s Support, the county’s aid charity for the condition, celebrates its 20th anniversary, Mrs Filmore, who lives in Devizes, has praised it for the relief it brings to sufferers and carers alike.

Mrs Filmore said: “I am 77 and I am working harder now than I have in donkey’s years, so I really need the back-up they offer.”

Not that Mr Filmore is difficult to live with. The 82-year-old former chartered structural engineer is easygoing and affable.

It’s just that he forgets things and Mrs Filmore has to cater for his every need, although he still manages to do the washing up.

She said: “Maurice is a big person and I can’t cope with him on my own. He is wobbly on his feet.”

Mr Filmore was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease after suffering a stroke in the couple’s previous home in Sunninghill, near Ascot.

They moved to Devizes to be closer to their younger son, who lives at Coate.

They were referred to Alzheimer’s Support by Green Lane Hospital and Mr Filmore spends one day a week at the Sidmouth Street day centre and luncheon club. Mrs Filmore said: “There he is able to read, do his watercolour painting or take part in the activities they have there, simple quizzes like being asked to name a town that starts with a certain letter.

“But the great relief is knowing that they’re there at the other end of a telephone if I one day feel that I can’t cope any more.”

Alzheimer’s Support was started in Trowbridge in 1990 by former care home worker Anna Littlechild. It now employs 60 people across east and west Wiltshire.

Mrs Littlechild said: “Until recently, dementia was a subject that people didn’t like to talk about. So often people were completely isolated and unsupported and families were just left to cope.”