Jazz legend George Melly is one of those suffering from the growing problem of dementia, his wife said today.

Diana Melly said the singer was in the early stages of the condition, which has not stopped him performing.

The singer sparked health fears when he collapsed on stage last month.

The 80-year-old was performing with Digby Fairweather's Half Dozen at the Old Market in Hove, when he suddenly fell ill.

He was kept overnight in the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton suffering from suspected dehydration.

The Liverpool-born entertainer and writer is known to have health problems including emphysema and lung cancer.

She told BBC News 24: "I first noticed about two years ago, that his memory was really pretty awful. He's always been, as it were, the absent minded professor, so a lot of it was not easy to spot, because he's never been able to change a light bulb or do anything that most of us could do.

"But his memory just got very bad."

Dementia also changes a person's character "a bit", and Melly is now quite impatient and gets obsessed about things, she said.

Yet when he was on stage he was absolutely fine, remembered all the words of songs and entertained people.

She said they were "not broke", had the support of Admiral Nurses - who work with family carers to help people with dementia - and would be all right. "But most people aren't," she said.

And she admitted helping Melly had left her "quite stressed".

"I'm always awake now between three and five in the morning, it's always two hours in the night when I can't sleep."