People with dementia can have a good quality of life for a long time after diagnosis, a report said today.

Many members of the public believe the ability to lead a full life stops when Alzheimer's disease is diagnosed but the reverse is true, it said.

The study, from the Alzheimer's Society, examined the views of people living with dementia, asking what was important to them for a good quality of life.

The most important thing emerging from the study was maintaining relationships with family or friends and having someone to talk to.

A good environment, such as being at home, was the next most important thing followed by maintaining physical health.

Keeping a sense of humour came next, followed by having the ability to communicate with people - even if it took longer than normal - and keeping a sense of personal identity.

The ability to keep up activities that have long been enjoyed came next, followed by the ability to still go to church or practise faith or religion.

The report said: "People with dementia often feel that it becomes the only thing others know about them.

"But they remain individuals in their own right and dementia is not the most important thing about them.

"Many are still able to do what they did before despite their life changing and some things becoming increasingly difficult to do.

"The ability to lead a fulfilled life doesn't stop on diagnosis. A good quality of life can be maintained."

However, people with dementia questioned for the report said they had lost friends as a result of their diagnosis.

One said: "Friends...well you think they are your friend.

"You walk down the road and they will walk over the other side and you walk in a pub and they walk down the other end of the bar."

There are 750,000 people living with dementia in the UK, recent updated figures show.

A separate survey of more than 2,000 people for the charity found only 13% believe somebody with dementia can have a good quality of life at all stages of their condition.

More than half (54%) think a diagnosis of dementia would have a bigger impact on their quality of life in later life than with cancer (19%) or a physical disability (16%).

Over half of people (52%) said dementia has a stigma attached to it.

Author Sir Terry Pratchett who has posterior cortical atrophy, a rare form of dementia, supported the launch of the study, My Name is Not Dementia.

He said: "Dementia is undoubtedly a cruel and debilitating condition.

"However a diagnosis does not strip a person of their identity. That person still has a voice and they deserve to be heard.

"Dementia requires not just care but also understanding.

"There is an opportunity here to give the lie to some of the cliches of care. We have to learn to be good at it."

Ruth Sutherland, acting chief executive of the Alzheimer's Society, said: "All too often dementia is seen as an insurmountable barrier and a diagnosis is seen as a death sentence.

"This doesn't have to be the case.

"By listening to people living with the condition, as this report does, we can better understand what is important to them and how they would like to live their lives. We need to learn to see the person not just the dementia."