A grandmother facing a gruelling fight with lung cancer has been told by doctors her mouldy home “could kill her” - leaving her effectively homeless.
Christina Anderson was given the devastating news she has lung cancer in December last year. Earlier this month, she went through a potentially life-saving operation to remove a part of her right lung.
The 54-year-old– who also faces the prospect of a thyroid cancer diagnosis –has issued a desperate plea to be moved from her home in Glenburn as severe dampness has rendered it unsafe for her. Christina is a kinship carer for her two young grandsons - but says she has been forced to be separated from them due to being too sick to live in her own home.
She said: “It could kill me, it really could. 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.
“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 Glenburn property were not immediately apparent when Christina first moved in two years ago, but she sought advice from the council after noticing snails and slugs making their way into the property. The problem is most present in the two bedrooms and has destroyed a number of Christina’s belongings.
Council teams have been out to assess the property and have said that walls in the property will need to be brought down to fix the root of the problem. But, given her health problems, Christina says she desperately needs the council to find her a temporary home until the problems with mould in her property are resolved.
Christina 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.”
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