WHEN pensioner Meg Barbour’s husband turned into a mumbling stranger, she proved her love really was until death do us part.

The 67-year-old spent seven years looking after her husband Cedric as he slowly deteriorated from the effects of Alzheimer’s disease.

She would feed, cloth and bathe him, and her only break was for one hour, once a week, when a carer would take over.

Now Mrs Barbour has called for more Oxfordshire residents to give their time to help the elderly so their carers can get a well deserved break.

She said: “That hour off was very, very precious to me. We’ve all got an hour we could give.”

Mrs Barbour, of Wheatley, became the full-time carer to her husband in 1997.

It was just a year after he retired from Oxford University, where he worked as an accountant at the department of nuclear physics. He died in 2004, aged 72.

Mrs Barbour said: “Forty years ago I made a promise to love my husband until death do us part.

“I think I could make a case now for ‘until death do us part’, unless either of us has dementia.

“It was very, very hard. My best friend, my lover, my support turned into a mumbling stranger.

“It was very distressing because things were not going to get better. It was going to get worse.”

She said she also felt “cheated” from their retirement together, given they planned to travel.

In 1999 she contacted Age UK – formerly Age Concern – which helped arrange for a carer for an hour a week.

The carer would read a book with her husband or take him for a walk or a drive to give Mrs Barbour a break.

She said: “Age UK was instrumental in giving me an hour on my own once a week. A break.”

Before her husband’s death, Mrs Barbour began to volunteer herself, starting regular lunches for dementia sufferers and their carers at The Quarry, Headington. The sessions now attract more than 70 people, and has had to move to the larger premises of Collinwood Road United Reform Church, Risinghurst.

They were originally funded by a grant from the Alzheimer’s Society, but it now relies on private donations.

She said: “I set it up because I knew the need. I know how lonely and how stressful it is to care for somebody with dementia.

“People look at you and they see you with somebody holding a hand, and they think you’re a couple. But you’re not, you’re on your own.”

l To volunteer, contact Age UK Oxfordshire on 01235 849 407 or email giveanhour@ageukoxfordshire.org.uk.