Campaigners are stepping up their fight to keep vital drugs for dementia available on the NHS.

A group of protesters from Brighton and Hove are travelling to London on Tuesday to join thousands of others as part of a national day of action to lobby Parliament.

They are angry at a decision by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice).

It has recommended that drugs which help alleviate some of the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease should not be given to people in the early stages of the condition.

It is also recommending people at the very late stages of the condition should also not be given the drug as part of cost-cutting measures. The institute suggests the drug should only be administered to those with moderate signs of the disease.

Neil McArthur, manager of the Brighton area branch of the Alzheimer's Society, said he was flabbergasted at the decision.

He said: "This decision is cruel and unnecessary. What is happening is that people with dementia have to wait for their condition to deteriorate to a state of confusion and fear before being prescribed drug treatments that work.

"As well as the moral implications of this there is also the factor that if people are given the drug earlier it will be longer before they have to be admitted to a home for specialist care which is much more expensive.

"As it is, people will be refused vital treatment that only costs £2.50 a day to administer.

"So many people around here are stunned at this decision and are working to do what they can to reverse it. That is why I will be going on Tuesday."

Aubrey Milstein, 84, from Hove, is backing the campaign.

His wife Yetta, 85, is now in a home, but was given drugs treatments when she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's 11 years ago.

He said: "That gave us a precious few extra years and you cannot put a price on that.

"These drugs do work. They 'returned' my wife to me, giving us invaluable extra time, memories and hope.

"Under the guidance, medication would only be given once those precious memories and awareness had disappeared, never to be retrieved.

"With what other disease would you wait until someone gets worse before you grant them access to treatments that might help?

"What right does a body like Nice have to deprive people of drugs, watch them deteriorate and only help them when it is too late?"

A final decision on the recommendations will be made next month but the result will only affect those newly diagnosed with the condition.

People already prescribed the drug will still receive it.

Campaigners are asking those who can't make the trip to London to write to their MP demanding an explanation with a cheque for £2.50 made payable to the NHS Alzheimer's Disease Drugs Fund to make a point.

About 4,000 people in the Brighton and Hove area are diagnosed with dementia and there are about 750,000 cases in the UK.

The number is expected to double in the next 45 years.