Elderly champion honoured by Queen forced to sell house for place in care home

Dorothy Bagnall, who suffers from Alzheimer's disease, has been paying £1,700 a month to live in a care home since March.

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Now the 86-year-old widow's savings are running out and with two pensions totalling only £750 a month, her family fear she will have no option but to sell her home to carry on paying the fees.

Her assets were already severely depleted by the £800-a-month cost of nursing care for her husband Wallace, who died in April at 87.

Mrs Bagnall, a mother of three, is a former secretary who worked for Winston Churchill in London during the Blitz in the Second World War.

She dedicated her life to helping others and was awarded the MBE in 1999 in recognition of her tireless fight to make life better for the elderly in her home town of Whitley Bay, North Tyneside.

But she risks falling victim to the system of means-testing the elderly who need residential care.

Last night her son Stuart, 53, described his mother's plight as "outrageous" and called for the system to be overhauled.

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"It's scandalous that vulnerable older people, who are severely ill and in need of full-time care and attention, are being charged for health care which should be free under the National Health Service," he said.

"People like my parents risked their lives for this country and have already paid for health care through their taxes.

"It's double charging and little more than theft. It is somewhat ironic since she has spent most of her adult life helping older people that she now finds herself in this situation."

As a former chairman of Age Concern in North Tyneside, Mrs Bagnall had been responsible for setting up the Council for Voluntary Services in Whitley Bay and was instrumental in opening the town's first care home.

In March, as her Alzheimer's worsened, she was forced to move out of her home and into Cragg Hill Care Home 20 miles away in Newcastle upon Tyne.

A month later her husband of 60 years died after a long battle with dementia. He had fought for his country in the RAF before embarking on a highly successful teaching career.

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He went into care in 2002 as his condition worsened and the couple had to pay £800 a month towards his fees at Stephenson Court Nursing Home, Forest Hall, North Tyneside.

It swallowed up all of his teaching pension and much of their savings.

At the moment, anyone with savings or property worth more than £20,000 must pay their own care home bills.

Mrs Bagnall's family say she should be entitled to free NHS care because of her condition and should not have to use her remaining life savings of £21,500.

Although the final decision on that is yet to be made, they fear she will end up having to sell her house, which is thought to be worth in the region of £175,000.

The Daily Mail's Dignity for the Elderly campaign has consistently highlighted the plight of pensioners in hospitals and care homes across the country, detailing those who have been evicted because they cannot afford to pay the fees and because the local council does not believe they qualify for assistance.

Although he says he cannot fault the care his parents have received at both homes, Mr Bagnall believes the more specialised nursing care for the elderly with medical conditions such as Alzheimer's and dementia should be completely free, as it is in Scotland.

The family are awaiting the outcome of an appeal lodged with North Tyneside PCT for a refund of approximately £31,000 in nursing care fees spent on Mrs Bagnall's husband.

They do not believe he was properly assessed after a spell in hospital when his condition deteriorated and that he should have been cared for free of charge in hospital.