MY MUM had dementia and until she came to live with me she lived alone.

Although hugely sociable, she had become afraid of going out. Instead she stayed in and started to lose her social skills.

Loneliness is as bad for us as smoking 15 cigarettes a day and increases our risk of dementia. There are more than 800,000 older people in England who are chronically lonely.

This shouldn’t happen in a civilised society, but services and activities keeping older people connected are under threat.

It is not too late for action to reduce loneliness: in the next six months, new local forums for health and care officials will make decisions that could affect the future of these services. These forums, known as health and well-being boards, are there to listen to us.

Loneliness Harms Health is a new campaign from the Campaign to End Loneliness, aiming to inspire people to urge health and well-being boards to act on loneliness. They need local campaigners now.

As someone who cares about quality of life in older age, I encourage everyone to get involved in the campaign to ensure that local decision makers act on loneliness.

MARIANNE TALBOT, Ash Grove, Headington, Oxford