"HE was a super man but, obviously, he is not the person he was,"

Patricia Baker reflects, as she sums up life with husband Edwin, who has had Alzheimer's for 10 years.

Patricia, too, has to live with the effects of Edwin's deteriorating condition. Her lifestyle has changed radically.

No longer can the couple do things on the spur of the moment. Patricia has to pass up invitations for nights out with her work colleagues.

Caring for Edwin, aged 66, is a full-time commitment.

Patricia, 59, is just one of a six million-strong army of carers nationally whose unenviable work invariably goes unsung.

The couple live in Wick, near Pershore. They moved there from a bigger house in Peopleton when Patricia realised she could not look after its expansive grounds and devote the time necessary for Edwin's needs.

When his condition was confirmed in the early 1990s, it was a particularly traumatic time for Patricia.

On the same day, their son was diagnosed with a brain haemorrhage. He, thankfully, is now recovered but there is no such respite for Edwin.

On top of all that, Edwin's parents died and the move to Wick was blighted by the ravages of the Easter floods of 1998.

"He was a company director for a big building company when the industry was going through a bad time and was having to lay people off," Patricia says of Edwin.

"I thought he was depressed but Alzheimer's was diagnosed."

She adds: "There's been a very slow decline. It's beginning to accelerate now."

Gone are the days when Edwin was a swimming coach at Avon Valley swimming pool, a keen golfer and an active member of both the Round Table and the Lions. The couple's life is a more withdrawn existence these days.

"I think that's one of the tragedies of the illness," Patricia explains, "Your friends disappear.

"This is the isolation, the loneliness of it."

Unlike many carers, for whom caring is a 24-hour a day, seven-days a week commitment, Patricia works part of the week as a radiographer while Edwin has day care. "One of the reasons I want to work is for the company," she says.

When they are together at home, says Patricia: "You have to be in the same room," adding: "it's like having a child. You have got to be aware of what they're doing."

She goes on: "I feed him and do everything for him."

If all this sounds daunting, it is but Patricia remains as positive as is humanly possible in such trying circumstances.

"I appreciate the good things and make the most of it," she says.

"The other thing I would say is we have got wonderful neighbours. I'm very lucky.

"I consider I'm one of the luckier carers because I've got neighbours who don't know the meaning of the word no."

Patricia has learned to take one day at a time. "I don't think beyond the present," she says.