Mum battling cancer now also faces fight for accommodation
A mum who is fighting for her life is now also battling for accommodation saying she feels shut out of the private rental market because she is on benefits .
Lucy Wilson, who is suffering from cancer, desperately wants to find a house suitable for her and her three daughters and to move out of temporary accommodation.
But the 38-year-old Evanton mum strongly suspects landlords are refusing to consider her for a property when she explains her circumstances.
Speaking from hospital where she is being treated for an infection and suffering pain and swelling from a blood clot on her thigh, she said it was becoming "pretty obvious" professional working couples were more attractive to private landlords.
"I viewed a lovely two-bedroom house on a country estate and it was perfect, but I never got offered it," she said.
"I honestly think the landlord said no when they read about my circumstances, because I had to put it all in the application.
"I just wish they could have a heart and give me a chance. I know they must be concerned about payment but I have the deposit all ready and I can move in right now."
The situation is echoed in a new report by the Shelter homeless charity.
The organisation found "clear evidence" that around two-thirds of private landlords are unwilling to house those in receipt of housing benefit.
The report says this acts as a "significant material barrier to tenants being able to access decent affordable accommodation".
Miss Wilson added: "I just hope something else will come along. A house of my own will give me a great new focus and make me happy. It would be some good news for a change."
She explained: "When I split up with the girls’ dad I moved in with my mother but I thought it would only be temporary. I then got ill and had to wind down my mobile hairdressing business, which I loved, so getting another place was put on hold.
"But things have been hard lately because there are too many adults under one roof. It’s a lot of stress and added tension and I’ve become quite reclusive and just stay in my own room most of the time.
"I’m limited in what I can do now anyway when I do go out because my leg has been so sore so I’m just lying on my bed a lot.
"It feels like I’ve forgotten who I am, I’ve got no focus anymore, I don’t have anything to do, I can’t work because I’m ill and I really miss working, and I don’t even have my own place so I feel like a child who is wasting life away. I know if I get my own wee house it will give me something to focus on. It just seems so unfair that just because I’m on benefits I’ll probably get nowhere.
"As soon as I’m a bit better I’ll go back to work – I’m desperate to do that."
The mobile hairdresser – who is mum to Chloe (18) and Caitlin (15) also has a 12-year-old called Savannah who was born with a developmental disorder called Williams Syndrome.
She was diagnosed with endometrial cancer last September and told by doctors there was no current cure.
She refused to give up and her battle sparked an ongoing £28,000 community fundraising campaign for immunotherapy treatment at a private clinic in Germany. More than £20,000 has been raised.
However, she has secured a place on a free pioneering drugs trial at the world-leading Royal Marsden Hospital in London, which is under way.
