The whistleblower who exposed the horrific neglect of patients at Stafford hospital has revealed the full scale of the hate campaign that forced her out of her home town to live in a caravan.

In her first significant interview since closing her cafe business and moving out of Stafford, Julie Bailey speaks candidly about the impact of the abuse, which included the desecration of her mother's grave.

Talking to the Observer New Review, Bailey says that she is just content to be out of danger, living 50 miles from the town that was her home.

"It's a relief to be able to go out on my own again," she says.

Bailey's mother, Bella, died after appalling neglect at Stafford hospital in November 2007. Haunted by the memories of her mother's final weeks at the hands of uncaring staff and an unravelling system, she launched the group Cure the NHS, campaigning for better NHS care. The campaign forced an official inquiry, and her criticisms of Stafford hospital – where as many as 1,200 patients may have died through neglect – were fully borne out by Sir Robert Francis QC. The conclusions helped to force a wider review by the NHS medical director, Sir Bruce Keogh, into the service.

But in the interview with the Observer, Bailey talks about how her life has unravelled as some parts of the community have lashed out in anger after local NHS departments have been condemned to close.

A mother of two who lives alone, Bailey says she decided to move when her mother's grave was vandalised. "I would go up each Sunday to put fresh flowers out, and when I went up on a Tuesday to water them the flowers would be out and the vase smashed and the pieces stamped into the earth so I would have to dig them out," she says. She then received a thank-you card, asking: "Isn't it about time you started looking after your Mum's grave? Hahaha …" Bailey says: "I don't really know how you deal with that."

However, she expresses her hopes for the future and her determination that every hospital will have a dedicated Cure the NHS group to watch over standards. Bailey also reveals that she is seeking charitable status for the organisation so that she can draw a wage, commit her working life to the cause, and build a network of watchdogs. "I hope I can just coach them a bit in what I know and let them get on with it. Mortality rates are a starting point. But more importantly, we would like to see anonymous complaints in the public arena, along with details of serious untoward incidents. Match that with mortality rates and staffing levels and you begin to see a picture …"

Bailey, who sold her cafe for just £14,000 in the summer after she decided to escape the hate campaigners, adds: "I feel full of optimism that we have opened that door and people now feel a bit safer in speaking out. We don't want to destroy the NHS, far from it. Six, seven years ago I was so proud of the NHS, mum was, too. We'd always had fantastic care. What other country did what we did? But I do think we have lost our way.

"I believe government has to be honest and say we just can't afford what we are trying to do. We put on bionic arms and all sorts. Miraculous things. But we also have people lying in beds with terrible pressure sores and dying of dehydration…"