BETH Britton has used her family’s experience of dementia to campaign for better support for others.

Miss Britton, who lives in a village just outside Bicester, made a film where she talks about her experience with dementia, which was shown to delegates.

She spoke up on behalf of families and dementia sufferers at the first London G8 Dementia summit.

She was also invited back to Downing Street for tea and a chat with Prime Minister David Cameron about her father’s experience in care homes.

It comes just weeks after the 33-year-old won Best Independent Voice on Older People’s Issues for her blog at this year’s Older People in the Media Awards. She started writing it a month after her father Ray, 85, died from vascular dementia.

It was an outlet for her grief but also a chance to share the knowledge and practical advice her family had built up while caring for her dad.

Miss Britton’s blog has proved a success and led to her becoming a prominent dementia campaigner.

She said: “We all had a chance to speak to the Prime Minister about the different issues related to dementia. “I spoke about my father’s experience in care homes. He was in homes for nine years.”

It took 10 years for Miss Britton’s father to be diagnosed and only happened in 2003 after he suffered a massive stroke.

Writer and dementia, health and social care consultant Miss Britton and her mother Jean, 74, were dealt a double devastating blow, as at the same time they were told his illness was terminal and that he must live in a care home.

She said: “Things started when I was around 12.

“We didn’t realise it and as a family when things happened we put it down to eccentricity.We gradually fell into a caring role.

“It was challenging and heartbreaking and at the same time he was my dad who I loved to pieces.

“We started to notice he was not caring for himself as he used to, or he was not doing things he enjoyed such as his garden.”

Mr Britton, who had two other children, died in April last year.

Since then Miss Britton has been campaigning on issues around dementia, which is the umbrella term for more than 130 conditions, including Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia.

She aims to raise awareness of dementia and campaigns for better support for carers, prevention through healthy lifestyles and more cash to be put into research.

She said standards in care homes were “patchy” and added: “There are care homes with great staff, but if you end up in one which isn’t very good obviously you are going to have a bad experience.

“With the work I do now I hear both sides.”

s For more details visit bethbritton.com