NHS whistleblower Julie Bailey gives an interview that will make your blood boil Bella Bailey died of neglect at Stafford Hospital Her daughter Julie set up Cure The NHS calling for better care She's suffered abuse from people against hospital closure The last time Julie Bailey dared to set foot outside her house alone was six weeks ago. It was a quiet, balmy evening and at 6pm she popped into her local Tesco supermarket for some groceries. Lost in thought, she barely gave a passing glance to the smartly-dressed, silver-haired couple who walked past her in the aisle. But suddenly, the calm was shattered by obscenities as the middle-aged husband and wife launched a tirade of vitriolic abuse at Julie. "How dare you tell lies," they screamed. Your mother was 86. People die in hospital when they are old. Even now, Julie, who is a diminutive 5ft 2in, struggles to control her tears as she recalls the searing verbal attack. Hate campaign: Julie Bailey has suffered abuse for fighting for justice for her late mother She says: "They screamed so loudly that spit was flying from their mouths. The supermarket came to a standstill and everyone stopped and stared. I was too shaken to even try to reply. I left my trolley and ran from the shop, sobbing. The woman's screams trailed after me - "Your mother was going to die anyway." Those words were ringing in my ears. I didn't stop running until I got home, and I couldn't stop shaking and crying. I felt so terrified and alone. All I wanted was Mum's arms around me. But sadly, Julie will never feel the reassuring comfort of that embrace again - because her beloved mother Bella died from appalling neglect at Stafford Hospital in November 2007. Haunted by the memories of her mother's final, terrifying weeks at the hands of uncaring staff and an unravelling system, Julie launched the group Cure The NHS, campaigning for better NHS care. While her criticisms of Stafford Hospital - where as many as 1,200 patients are thought to have died through neglect - were fully borne out in an official report by Sir Robert Francis QC, the rancorous aftermath has turned Stafford into a town divided by malice. Now, a sinister and orchestrated campaign against Julie has succeeded in hounding her from her home. Appalling: Bella died from neglect at Stafford Hospital "I'm too scared to sleep at night," she says. I just lie in terror, thinking the house or my cafe will be firebombed. I used to love walking to Mum's grave every single day and placing her favourite flowers, carnations. But each morning I'd arrive and find the flowers had been strewn and broken, and the little vases smashed and ground into the grass. In a chilling twist, Julie received a "Thank you" card in the post the day after her mother's grave was first desecrated. Inside, someone had written: "Thank you for closing Stafford Hospital. Ha, Ha, Ha, you better now spend more time watching your mother's grave. Julie, a 50-year-old divorcee and mother of two, says: "I shook as I read it. I called the police, and one of the officers said it looked like the handwriting of a middle-aged woman. When they examined the envelope, whoever had sent it had Sellotaped it, rather than licked it - because they didn't want to leave DNA. 'I'd leave flowers at my mum's grave then find the little vases smashed and ground into the grass' I've had faeces pushed through the letterbox of my cafe, and smeared all over the windows. My mother died in agony, but even now she cannot rest in peace and I cannot grieve by her graveside. I realised, after the verbal attack at Tesco, that I couldn't cope. I had to leave my home town. Two weeks ago, starved of sleep and with a rota of friends taking turns to accompany her on brief trips outdoors (where she is routinely spat at and accused of betraying staff at Stafford Hospital), Julie put her beloved cafe up for sale. Last Saturday, it sold for a paltry £14,000. Julie says: "I actually felt as if a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I spent the whole lot on a caravan. Now, I'm leaving the town where I was born and where my children were raised. I'm going to live alone, where nobody knows me - and where I can sleep at night. Softly spoken and slightly built, Julie never sought a public profile for herself. She lived quietly in Stafford with her twinkle-eyed mother until Bella was admitted to Stafford Hospital with a suspected hernia in September 2007. Within days, Bella was complaining that nurses seemed to deliberately ignore her cries for pain relief. She was moved onto ward 11, where Julie saw dehydrated patients gulp down rotting flower water from vases in their desperation for drinks. Others cried for help amid soiled bedding, while those with dementia scuffled in the wards. Despite rallying, Bella was then dropped by a health care worker, and her condition worsened. She died in appalling terror - denied drugs to drain fluid from her overloaded heart because a nurse refused to fetch a doctor. Inquiry: As many as 1,200 patients are thought to have died through neglect at Stafford Hospital Julie says: "One dream had helped keep Mum and me sane in those last few weeks of pain and madness. I had seen a cafe for sale, and we would sit together on the ward and plan a future. Mum dreamed up recipes, and she'd sigh in contentment and say: "Oh love, I'm going to be the hostess with the mostest. It's going to be so good. She'd squeeze my hand with excitement. When Mum died, I was in such shock, but I just knew I had to buy the cafe because that had been our last dream together. I gutted it, painted it, and put Mum's favourite food on the menu, just as she had planned. Breaks Cafe also hosted the first meeting of Julie's new group - Cure The NHS. She was joined by dozens of other relatives who had lost loved ones in appalling circumstances. Naively, Julie believed that a campaign to improve conditions for locals might be welcomed in a tight-knit community blighted by poor health care. But not so - because many locals were on the payroll of the NHS, and fearful of losing their jobs. I never asked for the hospital to be closed and for staff to be sacked. But the facts don't seem to affect the hate and anger' Many took to social media to attack Julie anonymously. One local wrote with naked aggression: "I think the Bailey clan need to look to moving. I wouldn't be surprised to see a few front windows put through on their house. Another antagonist wrote: "I'm going to spit on her windows." Meanwhile, a former paramedic and ambulance call-handler called Roy Guest - his wife was a nurse at the Trust - wrote on Facebook: "Julie Bailey, I hope you suffer a life-threatening illness at night where you have to travel further than you should do because your local hospital is closed (your fault). Serves you right, go back to your bacon butties girl and leave the staff alone. He was later sacked. But the cowardly attacks continued. Local bloggers claimed that Julie's cafe had rats and that her food was swimming in grease. She says: "I would arrive for work in the morning and find faeces smeared all over the front window, or discover that excrement had been pushed through the letterbox. I was so worried they'd push rats through the door that I had a metal box fitted to catch the post. "People walked past the cafe and shook their firsts, or screamed "Nobody died." Whatever I planned seemed to meet with opposition and hostility from the local community. Beloved mother: Julie wanted justice for her parent Back in 2011, I arranged a memorial for the relatives of those who died. A church was booked and posters printed. Then, a senior figure at another church - a local Left-wing activist - strolled in and announced: "You can't have your memorial, because I've organised a special service to pray for the hospital and the staff on the very same date. I've booked a choir, too, so you'll have to cancel your service. I told him that our posters were printed, but he was bullish and insistent. A few days later, he marched back with his own poster for his "Remember Stafford Hospital" service. "He pushed it towards me and said: "You can put this poster up." "In desperation, I said: "Who's behind all this?" He sneered, pushed his face towards mine and said: "God."" Julie claims the antagonism worsened even further with the formation of a local campaign group called Support Stafford Hospital - which denies any involvement in bullying tactics or threats. Julie says: "I began to be recognised everywhere. People would see me and shout: "You've brought shame to this town. Nobody died. I can't believe it - the official inquiry states that between 400-1,200 deaths could have been avoided, but misinformation and falsehoods are running rife in this town. My campaign will continue, and as long as innocent people die, I will do everything I can to help their families find justice People either claim nobody died, or that one single life was lost - my mother - and that I am launching a vendetta. Recently, a man stopped me in the street and barked at me: "It's your fault the hospital has closed. You had it shut down. The hospital is, of course, still running and I have never called for it to be closed. I only ever campaigned for a better quality of care - but many staff from the hospital are portraying themselves as innocent victims. She adds: "I listened to the radio the other day and a nurse from the A&E department phoned in. She claimed she had worked at the hospital for 44 years, and had attended the Francis Inquiry along with another nursing colleague. "She claimed that during the inquiry she had been heckled and abused, and members of the public had screamed "murdering bitches" at both her and her nursing colleague. Now, I was there on every day but one of the public inquiry, and nobody behaved like that. There were no shouts or threats, especially to nurses. The notion that Sir Robert Francis QC would allow such insults to be hurled as he chaired the inquiry is ludicrous. Much rancour has been caused by the claim by activist Diana Smith that Julie spoke at a public rally in 2009 and called for the hospital to be shut and the staff to be sacked. Mrs Smith is involved in the Support Stafford Hospital campaign, which organised a march of 30,000 people through the town in April. Julie says: "I have witnesses at the public meeting who will testify I never asked for the hospital to be closed and for staff to be sacked. But the facts don't seem to affect the hate and anger which is being whipped up. During the march, scores of people were running into the cafe, shouting abuse at me and running out. "Many of them were screaming "No one died, you're a liar," which is ridiculous, because one poor woman stood with a protest banner in the middle of the march saying she had lost four members of her family at the same hospital. Shocking: Bella's grave has been desecrated and Julie feels she can no longer live in the town The police came here to check that I was all right. I was physically shaking, because I really thought the whole place was going to be smashed up. "My son Martin, 33, rang me and told me down the phone: "Mum, just get out of your house," so I went to stay with a friend." Until recently, Julie has sought solace at the graveside of her mother - a carved headstone which reads: "Bella Bailey, forever our rainbow on a cloudy day, we'll meet again some sunny day - a friend to all." Julie says softly: "Mum loved carnations, so I went to her grave every day, bought her fresh flowers, tended to the plot and talked to her at the graveside. But once these people began to desecrate her grave, I felt physically sick. Mum was denied dignity in her last few weeks of life - and now I cannot bear to see her denied it in death, too. Then, when that couple turned on me in Tesco, I simply lost my nerve. I stopped going out alone, so my friends drew up a rota to take me out and protect me. Every day, someone would come to take me out to walk my dog, or to nip to the shops. Customers had stopped coming to the cafe. We were making just £40 a day. I couldn't sleep at night because I was so scared. So I thought "This isn't a life. I'm just existing. As soon as I thought of escaping, it was as if a huge cloud was lifted. Mum and I had such plans for that cafe, and I worked so hard turning it into the vision we both had. But I felt nothing when I put it up for sale. When it sold I just felt relieved. It was the first time I actually saw a chink of light at the end of the tunnel. Mum was only tiny, but she would have turned around and stood up for me if she was still here. She so hated injustice. But I can't live with the fear of this vicious hate campaign. Memories aren't enough for me. I'm leaving town without a backward glance. My campaign will continue, and as long as innocent people die, I will do everything I can to help their families find justice. It's no less than my poor mother deserved. With that, Julie Bailey makes her final preparations to leave a town riven by bitterness, hysteria and denial. Like her mother before her, this courageous woman deserves better.