Bonnie Bell and I have been literally best friends for 17 years.

I'm sorry, but obviously when I spotted signs or the signs of early onset Alzheimer's relationship shifted I'm fine.

I'm fine right now.

Basically, I'm the full time unpaid carer, which I'm happy to be a privilege.

Somewhere near you, there'll be people like Dave body a carer and cared for husband and wife.

A daughter of mom, a brother and sister.

Or, as in David, Bonnie.

Best friends.

Someone with dementia being helped by someone without.

Do you have any family money?

Do you have any family?

Yes, I've got a son.

Have you?

How old is he?

What?

Um, it's tough at the best of times and has been made much worse by locked down on the restrictions that go with it.

So I lost everything and she lost everything, and we were kind of locked together.

But there have been some moments of, you know, well, feelings of despair.

And they're not typical for me.

But yeah, has been Really What does it What does it feel like getting close?

Because I think most people won't know.

It never been in that situation.

It feels like you're looking down a dark hole.

It feels like whatever you do to make things better can only make things a little better for a short period of time.

And it just it concentrates the mind on the fact that this is a losing battle on gets tough fighting a losing battle.

That's how it feels.

Dave is hardly alone.

Newsnight has exclusively seen research, which lays bare the extent of the dementia care problem.

Across the UK, 95% of family carers surveyed said that the extra caring hours they've had to put in during the pandemic had impacted upon their physical or mental health.

69% said they felt constantly exhausted.

64% felt anxious, 49% depressed on.

Perhaps that's no surprise when you consider that half said they were putting in more than one 100 hours a week in care.

On that, 83% said that the health of those they care for had nonetheless deteriorated during the pandemic.

Newsnight reported on the extent of the impact on dementia in the spring, where nearly a third of Kobe deaths were made up of those with the disease at the time the Alzheimer's Society was calling for government to put dementia at the center of its strategy to prevent it all happening again.

A summer turned to winter they don't believe it happened.

Well, we know that some issues for people with dementia, such as visiting in hair homes, is still not sorted out.

You know the testing isn't there were still calling on the government to recognize just one key family member as a kind of key worker for each person in residential care with the testing and PP.

They need to be able to offer that really good quality as an equal partner in care that's absolutely vital to people living in care homes, which is still not resolved, you know, six months in.

But we're also calling on the government.

Thio ensure people who have had social care support removed have it returned as soon as possible as soon as it's safe to do so, which means getting PP and testing right for people with domicile delivering don ancillary care.

Getting her out of bed, Gordon looks after his wife, Sue, who has advanced dementia.

He himself has cancer.

It spread our life really to stop.

It's difficult times.

He's dreading further restrictions.

Should they come?

Yes.

Yes, it has a, um I, you know, have no life.

Uh, my life was just looking after my life, so, you know, it's it's very depressing.

You can't socialize, you can't see anybody.

You can speak on the telephone.

It's not say, um, so you know, it has had a profound effect on me, and but I'm getting I'm going to try and get over there, get myself back.

Have got some time.

Yeah, to socialize Bond.

Of course, the worried now is that we get locked down again.

That would be very, very different.

There's no doubt that those with dementia and those who care for them have borne a terrible cost during this pandemic.

But as we head into winter, it could get tougher.

Still, in the spring, many of the charities which plugged the gaps left in our deeply uneven social care sector were still in reasonably robust health.

Today, after a year of financial battering, many are closing services on the brink and therefore those precious hours off rest, spite for cared for and kara alike are in jeopardy.

The prospect on experience of being a carer in the second wave could be even worse.

David least has his music, his live performances, finally resuming.

He fears his restrictions return that they'll disappear along with any limited help for Bonnie, which has reappeared with them.

There's much talk of Mawr blanket restrictions to come.

Perhaps when they're being made, we ought not to forget on, perhaps make exceptions for those around us who forget all too often.