House at last for Barry MS sufferer (From Barry And District News)

House at last for Barry MS sufferer

A BARRY woman battling the incurable illness multiple sclerosis has blasted the Vale of Glamorgan Council for leaving her in a fourth-floor flat for ten months.

But, thanks to the intervention of the Barry and District News, it looks like her ordeal is at last at an end.

Feeling like a prisoner in her own home, Sian Thomas says she has been living in fear of falling down the steep stairs leading to and from her Holton Road flat.

Sian, 33, a former psychic consultant, was officially diagnosed with the debilitating condition in February, but has been living with the devastating side-effects since 2001. Told provisionally her symptoms were MS in 2002, Sian applied to the Vale council for a two-bedroom house to adapt before her health deteriorated.

But for ten long months she heard nothing.

Sian, who asked us to help her last week, will soon need a wheelchair and a full-time carer.

She said: "I put a bid in under the 'Homes4U' scheme for a two-bedroom house but I didn't hear anything from them.

"I applied for a house so I could make alterations, like a stair lift, before things got too bad.

"All I have wanted is a house so I can prepare for whatever happens next. But not to have been offered one single property during that period was very worrying. I could have hurt myself falling down these stairs."

The Barry and District News contacted the Vale of Glamorgan Council to see what was happening with Sian's bid.

They got back to us with some very good news.

Earlier this week a spokesman for the council said: "Under the council's new Homes4U lettings system, this lady has successfully bid for a property of her choice and, as we understand, is over the moon."