A WIDOW who looked after her husband before he died has been wrongly billed for his care – three years after his death.

Brenda Sellwood, 73, of Maybank Avenue, Wembley, was devastated to receive a letter from Brent Council last week, asking her to pay £8 for what it claims were recent care incurred for her late husband, Leonard Sellwood.

The pensioner single-handedly looked after her husband, who had dementia, for nearly seven years. She called in some help only towards the end of his life, when she was not able to lift him anymore.

The grandmother-of-four said she paid for the care he received before his death, at the age of 77, and was upset to receive the bill.

“I do not owe them anything
from the past and, anyway, the bill was for this year and he isn’t around anymore so it makes no sense at all,” she said.

“I look after myself these days, I am perfectly alert and pay my own bills with no problem. I don’t get care so there is no reason why a bill would have come through.

“This has been devastating for me.

A council spokesman said: “We apologise unreservedly to Mrs Sellwood for any distressed caused. We are looking into what happened and will be contacting her with an explanation.”

Mrs Sellwood said: “Leonard and I were married for a long time and after he died I just cried for a year-and-a-half.

“It has been awful to get this letter from the council.”

Mrs Sellwood met Leonard when she was just 16 and they got engaged a year later, when she turned 17.

They were married for 54 years and had two daughters, living in Kilburn before they moved to Wembley.

Mr Sellwood, who worked as a machine engineer for McVitie’s, suffered from dementia in the latter part of his life.

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