Everyone has been telling Mary that she has almost lived her life. She lives in a remote area of Cornwall and is 88 years old.

She has attended funerals of almost all her friends and family members and she is partially blind and deaf. She has only one son but he can't visit her often and stays at a three-hour drive distance.

Mary struggles to live life normally with her double disability. She is not allowed any benefits and for her own help that she gets from an agency worker she has to pay £40 for two hours.

There are thousands of women like Mary living in England who do not have any help from anywhere when it comes to social services.

Change is wanted by Age UK, and the Local Government Association the Commission on Improving Dignity in Care, which is a body set up by the NHS Confederation in the way elderly people are being looked after.

There will be a public consultation on the aspect and the report filed by the commission points out the underlying causes of the system's persistent shortcomings.