GMTV presenter Fiona Phillips is grieving over the death last week of her mother.

Amy Phillips had suffered from Alzheimer's disease for the last eight or nine years.

A former nurse, Amy, aged 74, had also worked at Ocky White department store, in Haverfordwest.

For the last few years, she had been a resident of Fairfields Nursing Home in Johnston, where she had been visited frequently by Fiona.

As Amy's illness progressed, Fiona expressed the anguish of other relatives who had to watch their loved ones succumb to Alzheimer's and dementia.

She wrote: "It nearly killed me to see the tortured look on her haunted face Does she know she's trapped in hell?

And she added: "If she was an animal, she would be mercifully released from suffering."

After her mother's death last week Fiona said: "Because she suffered so much, it's a release. It's such a horrible disease. For the last two years she has been a shell of the person I knew as my mum. At least I know she's at peace now."

Amy's funeral, which will be held this week, will be private.