PHOTOGRAPHS cover the walls of Robin Willcocks' home.

Pictures of weddings, graduations, smiling children, laughing grandchildren, happy holidays - all are precious memories frozen in time.

Among the most precious photographs in Mr Willcocks' collection are some of him and his wife, Pat, on their last trips out together.

Those trips were special - for so many reasons.

Mr Willcocks met his wife more than 50 years ago.

"She was a district nurse and looked after my father, Percy who had had cancer.

"I was a member of a dramatic society and we had after show parties.

"I asked to go to one and it blossomed from there.

"I proposed to her after going to see a film at the Granada cinema in Walthamstow. It was only a few months later. I think I knew she was the one."

The couple were married at St Mary's Church in Walthamstow 51 years ago.

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By that time, Mrs Willcocks was working on a surgical ward and Mr Willcocks remembers with pride how all the nurses from the hospital attended in their uniforms.

The couple went on to have four children - Julianne, now 49, Dianne, 47, David, 45, and Susanne, 39 - and five grandchildren.

Mr Willcocks, 77, had a photographic processing business but when he received an offer for the business, he and Pat, who is 78, decided to grasp the nettle and enjoy their retirement.

They moved to Kirby Cross 21 years ago and got involved in community life becoming leading lights in the Kirby Gardening Club, Kirby Cross Residents Association and dramatic societies.

They raised thousands of pounds for charity by taking part in open garden events.

Mr and Mrs Willcocks made the most of their retirement including going on 16 cruises, sailing across the Caribbean and Mediterranean, twice up the Panama Canal and around South America.

They were in Times Square in New York on 9/11 and have been on four trips to Australia where Dianne lives.

But life changed when Mrs Willcocks was diagnosed with vascular dementia in 2009.

"We had noticed she had been forgetting things for a while.

"Little things like putting something in the microwave and forgetting it was there.

"Her short term memory went. She can still remember things from years ago - films, directors, casts but she doesn't know what day it is, she can't keep track of the time.

"She had been a driven and organised person, there were no flies on Patsy," Mr Willcocks added.

"She could nag and boss me mercilessly but she was so caring.

"She had a great memory at one point. There were 125 members of the gardening club and she knew everyone's name.

"After she was diagnosed, we managed one more trip to Australia in 2011 but there was so much she could not do.

"She was in a wheelchair then and she went gone downhill."

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Back at home, Mr Willcocks took over the day-to-day running of the home.

"I got her up and dressed in the morning, I did the washing and cooking," he said. "I had never done those during our married life. Everything changed."

As Mrs Willcocks' condition deteriorated, so did Mr Willcocks'.

He needed a hip operation and was struggling.

"We had started to go to a coffee club which helped people with dementia in Clacton.

"It was absolutely wonderful, I can't speak highly enough of them.

"One day I went in there in tears, I could not cope.

"They put me in touch with Crossroads and social services.

"It was such a relief. The carers have all been so good, absolutely brilliant."

Crossroads Care Tendring and Colchester offers support to carers and to Mr Willcocks, it was a lifeline.

The group provided four hours of support a week, allowing Mr Willcocks to go out to do the shopping without struggling with wheelchair.

But from travelling the world, the couple, and Mrs Willcocks especially, were pretty much confined within their four walls.

However, Mr Willcocks became involved in a pilot project funded by the Colchester Catalyst Charity.

The charity spent £129,640 on respite care last year including a donation to Crossroads Care.

Among the schemes was to give funding to allow a carer to take a couple on trips out.

Mr Willcocks said: "Clare Wilson has been our carer for two years and the money meant she could go out with Patsy and me.

"We went to Perrywood Garden Centre in Tiptree. Clare pushed her wheelchair, took Patsy to the toilet.

"We had not been out on a trip like that for years. We had been to the shops but it was about it."

They went to Dedham (three times) and to Clare and back to Perrywood's to see the Christmas decorations.

"That was our last trip but it was wonderful," said Mr Willcocks.

Mrs Willcocks' condition has now deteriorated to the point where she had had to go into a care home.

Mr Willcocks said: "I do miss her, I feel lonely.

"But there are so many memories and our last trips are really special memories. I can't thank Crossroads or the catalyst charity enough."

To contact Crossroads Care Tendring and Colchester, call 01255 860960 or go to www.carers.org/local-service/colchester.

To contact the Colchester Catalyst Charity, which supports organisations working for the relief of the sick or suffering in north east Essex, call 01206 323420 or go to www.colchestercatalyst.co.uk.