The health of an 87-year-old woman who lobbied Tony Blair in a vain bid to stop her care home closing is deteriorating rapidly.

Clara Dudley has regained her speech since suffering a stroke at the home she was moved to after the Moreton Centre in St Leonards shut.

However, she has been rendered immobile, is fed via tube and friends say the battle to save the Moreton has taken a huge toll.

Mrs Dudley was wheeled up to the steps of 10 Downing Street in June to hand over a 4,500-name petition carrying signatures from across East Sussex.

The fight to stave off closure even reached the High Court in April but Judge Mr Justice Maurice Kay dismissed the case.

Mr Kay found in favour of Tory-run East Sussex County Council following an earlier judicial review.

His ruling meant the council could go ahead with its plans to turn the home in Boscobel Road into a 30-place rehabilitation centre to ease hospital bed-blocking.

But relatives of pensioners at the Moreton condemned the ruling, saying the shock of moving them could kill them.

Friend Bob Hart said: "Clara is in dreadful health. This is evidence that moving elderly people from their familiar environments is terrible for them."