A grandmother fighting lung cancer has been wrenched from her family and left homeless after doctors warned her mouldy home could kill her.
Christina Anderson was given the devastating diagnosis in December and underwent a potentially life-saving operation last month to remove part of her right lung.
But severe dampness in the 54-year-old's home in Glenburn, Scotland, mean she's desperately pleaded with her local council to be moved.
She's already been separated from her two young grandsons, for whom she is kinship carer, after becoming too sick to live in her own home.
“It could kill me, it really could," Ms Anderson told the Daily Record.
"Because it’s not just the cancer, I‘ve also got chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and I’m asthmatic too.
"My surgeon, after I’d had the surgery, told me there’s no way I can go back there because the place is full of mould."
Doctors also suspect Ms Anderson could have thyroid cancer, presenting a double blow for her recent health struggles.
“The boys keep asking about me because they think I’ve gone away and left them so it’s affecting them as well and with one of the boys being on the autism spectrum, he doesn’t understand why I’m not there.”
The problems with damp and mould in the property were not immediately apparent when Ms Anderson first moved in two years ago, but she sought advice from the council after noticing snails and slugs creeping inside.
The damp, she says, is worst in the two bedrooms and has destroyed a number of her belongings.
Council teams have been sent to assess the property and claim walls will need to be brought down to stem it at the root.
But, given her health problems, Ms Anderson says she desperately needs them to find her a temporary home until the problems with mould in her property are resolved.
She added: “My social worker has been out trying to help, but the council won’t even listen to her. I’m banging my head against the wall here.
“I’m technically homeless right now, because I can’t go back to the property. I’m sofa surfing with family, but I can’t do that forever because they’ll get in trouble for me being there when I’m not supposed to be there.”
In the meantime, Christina says the situation is taking its toll on her grandsons, who remain at the Glenburn property, with their father staying with them temporarily. The trio have to sleep in the living room.
She added: “It’s having a detrimental effect on all of our mental health. I should be recuperating, but I can’t even do that. I can’t recover. And if the council would just give me another property, this would all be resolved.”
A spokesperson for Renfrewshire Council said, “We were going to do the work needed to address the damp in Ms Anderson’s home in December but Ms Anderson asked us to postpone it.
"We were expecting an update about when we could reschedule the work but we haven’t heard anything back so far.
“We will immediately check the property’s current condition to identify whether any additional work is needed.
"We will also assess whether a decant is required. We will contact Ms Anderson directly to make arrangements to get access to the property.”
