A man who had to give up work to care for him mum with dementia is calling on the Government to 'fix the care system'.

Anthony Young, of Epping Forest, said he had to 'jump through endless hoops' to receive support in looking after his mother who died in March.

He is one of 135,638 who have signed an Alzheimer’s Society’s campaign petition, addressed to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, urging the Government to fulfil its promise to ‘fix the crisis in social care once and for all’, made by Mr Johnson when he came to power almost two years ago.

" I see myself as a strong person but if I wasn’t I would never have coped for as long as I did," said Anthony.

“The lack of communication between social care and the NHS is astonishing. No one talks to each other, or at least that is how it seems.

“When caring for my mum, at every stage I’d spend hours on the phone trying to facilitate things with professionals. I would have to find out information and keep in contact regularly just to stay on top of it all.

“I felt I was doing more work than what I was getting from the professionals. This is where I see the system breaking down for families.”

The charity says that while dementia is not curable yet, the social care system is, and it wants the government to commit to a plan that will deliver high-quality, accessible social care that is free at the point of use, like the NHS.

Claire Stockwell-Lance, Alzheimer’s Society area manager for Essex, said: “Sadly, decades of chronic underfunding and neglect have led to a care system that is costly, inadequate and deeply unfair – and the pandemic has exposed these failings like never before.

“NHS care is provided according to need and is free at the point of use. As a matter of fairness, dementia care must be delivered on the same principle.”