Why should someone who has worked all their days lose their house and almost everything they’ve worked for if they have the misfortune to suffer from Alzheimer’s or dementia instead of cancer or some other hellish illness?

Why is one enormous misfortune in life almost guaranteed to wipe out a lifetime’s work while others are treated by the NHS free?

In the last 15 months, I’ve lost my brother to cancer and my oldest sister to dementia.

Both received excellent care: my brother from the NHS and my sister from the care home she had been in for five years.

Yet my sister had to sell off her wee one-bedroom semi-detached house to pay for her care while my brother was looked after by the health service without cost.

Both should’ve been cared for under the NHS and it’s a scandal that this two-tier situation exists.

When it comes to Alzheimer’s and dementia sufferers and their care home costs, we have a health lottery.

If you have the misfortune to be struck down by a debilitating disease which robs you of your mind and your personality, you’ll also find yourself robbed of almost everything you’ve worked for by a cruel roll of life’s dice, if you........

© The Courier