A MOTHER’S five-year wait for a disabled bungalow is forcing her disabled son to live ‘without dignity’.

Danielle Mitchell, 24, has been on the waiting list for social housing since son Evan – who attends St Wilfrid’s Primary School in Hartford – was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at eight months old.

Their two-storey semi detached house in Plantagenet Close, Winsford means Danielle – who is just five foot tall – must carry her three-foot son upstairs every time he needs the toilet.

He has fallen down the stairs twice and the door frames in the privately rented property are too small for his little wheelchair to fit through, leaving him forced to crawl around on the floor.

Grandma Kay Mitchell, 46, who lives in Chester said: “What can we do to give this child some dignity? You should see him crawling round on the floor, it’s awful and it’s ridiculous that they have to live like this.

“He needs a disabled bungalow, something that is wheelchair friendly, but they all got to the elderly.”

Danielle, who is a full-time carer to five-year-old Evan, said the problem is getting worse now that he is growing.

“He can’t walk independently or stand himself up so he relies on me to lift and carry him. If he’s tired I have to take him up to bed, if he needs the toilet I have to carry him so I’m up and down the stairs all day with my three-stone son and he’s only going to get bigger.

“At night I’m in agony with back spasms, I’m finding it really difficult to cope with things as they are. It’s just impossible.

“It’s not an option to rent a bungalow privately because I couldn’t do adaptations like putting a wheelchair ramp in to the door.” Danielle was determined to keep life as normal as possible for him after his shock diagnosis.

She said: “We started to notice something wasn’t quite right because he wasn’t sitting up when he was between six and eight months. He had rolled over when he should but he was starting to lag behind.

“At his eight and a half month check he was referred to a physio and that’s when the MRI scans and the tests started. It was a huge shock but you just have to get on with it.”

Jackie Hodgson, Housing Manager for Weaver Vale Housing Trust, said: “Danielle is registered on 'Trust HomeChoice' for accommodation. She is in the second highest band for properties because of her son's medical condition and is therefore in a good position to secure a suitable home.

“We will be contacting Danielle this week to discuss her specific needs and to talk her through the new way of applying for a property.

“We will do our best to find a suitable home for Danielle and her family and are committed to improving quality of life for our customers as well as providing them with a greater choice of properties across all areas.”