So I went back to the doctor, we went back to the neurologist and this time I went too. And she trashed me. He, his, [my husband's] father had just died and I said he'd behaved inappropriately. 'People, all sorts of, no behaviour is inappropriate after a death.' And I really felt swooping round the green outside the house where he was pretending to be an aeroplane when he'd just been told his father was dead, was inappropriate. And I said the neighbours were beginning to comment and show concern. And she said 'Just because your neighbours think he's got Alzheimer's doesn't mean he has.'

And I said I wanted a second opinion. And she was very angry and she said 'You'll get the same message from,' but yes I could see a psychiatrist. And so he saw a psychiatrist who said to me he thought the problem was neurological.

And I read the Alzheimer's News and by chance there was an article about [a] clinic in [place]. And I phoned him and said 'Can I bring [my husband]?' And he said 'Yes,' and told me how to do it through the NHS and my doctor cooperated. And I've told that story in detail because I consider that was the first unethical thing that was done in that neurologist knew he had Alzheimer's, knew he had a dementia because when she wrote to [the professor] she told him so.

And had we been told the truth in the first place things would have worked out very differently. I can't pass a comment on whether it would have been better or worse but [he] certainly would have been here and we would have followed a much more conventional path.

They were marvellous to me at the clinic and [the professor] talked to me at length about preserving life or not, quality and quantity of life. And essentially said 'Let him take all the risks he wants to. If he's knocked down by a bus what does he lose? Just years of gathering dementia, so let him do as much as he wants to do.' And I said 'I have thoughts about things that coroners sometimes say.' And he said 'If it ever came to that I would support you.'

And so I allowed and encouraged [him] to ride a bicycle for as long as was possible and I kept him out of full time care for as long as was possible. Because he was a very proud and very independent man and I felt that was what he, what he would want.