EX-WALES footballer Robbie Savage has clashed with reality TV star Katie Hopkins over comments she made about dementia patients "blocking beds".

The former Wales international, an ambassador for the Alzheimer's Society, said he was "mortified" by the Sun columnist's tweets as his father Colin died at 63 after battling the disease, which is thought to affect 850,000 people in the UK.

The row erupted when Hopkins wrote on Twitter: "Dementia sufferers should not be blocking beds. What is the point of life when you no longer know you are living it? Bang me over the head.

"The day I am diagnosed with dementia is the day I book my ticket to Dignitas.

"Ultimately, if your family member is in hospital with dementia because you are not caring for them - you have no right to be outraged."

In a phone-in with Phil Williams on BBC Radio 5 live Savage accused the Celebrity Big Brother finalist of making "stupid naive comments".

Match of the Day pundit Savage said: "I spoke to my mother, my mother's in tears. I've been in tears tonight because I lost my hero, my father from a disease which people know nothing about. Going on Twitter to vent some stupid naive comment beggars belief. I'm mortified."

He added he would not have wanted his father to be euthanised as he could still recognise his family.

When Savage asked if Hopkins felt the 17 weeks his father spent in hospital was bed blocking, she replied: "For me, yes."

Hopkins, who is epileptic revealed she had signed an advance directive permitting euthanasia should she fall critically ill.

She said: "If I don't know who my children are, if I don't know my own name, if I can't go to the bathroom, if I can't look after myself, I don't want to be kept alive.

"I'm privileged and proud to know that my advance directive is signed and that when the time comes I will take myself off, I will pop off and I will not be a burden to my children. We're different people Robbie. We have to accept that."

The one-time Apprentice contestant added she had had emails from nurses about bed blockers, which she said meant "people that are dumped in hospital".