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Inside a church hall in Eccles, Greater Manchester, a group of men and women are line dancing to Dolly and Kenny’s Islands in the Stream.

They laugh as they forget the steps, trying to concentrate on the teacher.

Half the dancers have dementia, the other half are their partners and carers.

At the centre of them all is Joy Watson, the extraordinary dementia campaigner who last year won a Points of Light Award from David Cameron and an honorary doctorate at Salford University in recognition of her pioneering work.

The 59-year-old made Eccles the first dementia-friendly town by distributing homemade leaflets to shops and businesses explaining how to deal with customers who have dementia – after having difficulty with shopping following her own ­diagnosis.

Now she has another, even crueller, battle to fight.

(Image: Tony Spencer)

The Department for Work and Pensions has cut off her benefits – meaning she and husband Tony have lost £400 a month.

“I just feel I have been punished for trying to live well with dementia,” says Joy, herself a former carer for people with dementia.

“But surely the DWP know dementia is a progressive disease? I’m not going to get better.”

Her family believe that Joy’s success in changing attitudes about dementia has counted against her.

“If she had sat on the settee and stagnated, we would be getting all these benefits now,” Tony says.

The line dancing group is for younger people with dementia, like Joy, who was just 55 when she was ­diagnosed. It helps their memory and ­coordination.

Yet, “living our lives as well as possible” is what people at the group fear may be costing them the vital support of the welfare state.

(Image: Tony Spencer)

Jenny Fletcher, 62, poignantly sums up her condition as being like the John Denver song, Some Days Are Diamonds, Some Days Are Stones.

A former chef, she says: “I can barely cook an egg now.”

She shows me the tag she carries because “I’m always wandering off”.

“I joined a dementia swimming group,” Jenny says. “One week I did 34 lengths.

"The next week I forgot I knew how to swim and sank like a stone.

"I nearly drowned and had to be rescued. Which day do I get assessed for benefits on?”

Other people at the line dancing class tell me they now feel “terrified” for their future.

“If Joy’s benefits can be stopped, all of ours can,” one man tells me.

Joy is one of an avalanche of people who have had their help stopped when they transferred from ­Disability Living Allowance to Personal Independence Payments.

(Image: Tony Spencer)

Losing PIP also means that Tony loses his Carers Allowance for looking after Joy, as well as other help, such as council tax relief.

PIP is a points-based system. And when Joy appealed, she was awarded even fewer points. This is despite the fact that Tony says Joy is unable to cook meals or hold a cup of tea safely, and mixes up vital medication if left to manage on her own.

She forgets to turn the gas on or off, or to put water in the pan with ­vegetables. One time she went away with a carer and took her evening pills in the morning.

This is also the reason she stopped work as a carer and now needs support herself.

“I hated giving up the job I loved,” she says, “but it would have been dangerous for me to be in charge of other people’s care and medication.”

The Alzheimer’s Society says it was appalled by the DWP’s decision.

“Joy is a valued ambassador and has done a fantastic amount of awareness-raising for Alzheimer’s Society,” a spokeswoman says.

“There appears to be serious flaws in the Personal Independent Payments assessment process when it comes to people with dementia.

"This includes a poor understanding of the needs of younger people with dementia.”

(Image: MEN)

Joy’s MP Rebecca Long-Bailey says the decision is “disgusting” and has called on the government to “urgently review” dementia assessments.

A DWP spokesman said: “Under PIP, 28% of claimants are now receiving the highest rate of support, compared to 15% under DLA.

“Under DLA, 70% of all claimants had indefinite awards with little prospect of a review, which meant that a significant number of claimants whose condition had deteriorated were not receiving the right amount of benefit.

"PIP takes a much wider look at the way someone’s health condition or disability impacts them on a daily basis.”

Meanwhile, however much the benefits system wants to focus on what she can’t do, Joy is determined to keep living her life to the full.

(Image: Christopher Furlong/Getty)

Her next project is a sponsored ride on the longest zipwire in Europe – for Alzheimer’s Research.

Meanwhile, she has dyed her hair purple as it’s the colour of Alzheimer’s and dementia campaigns.

As her husband Tony says: “This time the DWP may just find they have messed with the wrong woman.”