Saltcoats mum fights for new home suitable for disabled son

Louise Turner, of Kerr Avenue, Saltcoats, says her son is being "deprived of the right to thrive".

Little Calum Louden-Steele has been diagnosed with the muscle wasting disease myotonic dystrophy.

Louise, 24, and her four-year-old daughter Anne-Marie suffer from the same genetic condition. While it causes them some difficulty, they are not confined to a wheelchair like wee Calum.

Louise and her partner Fraser Lochrie, 26, have been fighting to get rehomed for some time.

Their current property is not wheelchair accessible and there is no space for much of the equipment Calum relies on. 

Louise said: "There is a flight of stairs to even get into the flat that, suffering from the condition myself, I struggle to get Calum and his sister safety up the stairs and then myself while I carry his wheelchair up.

"He has a specialist seat for the bath that just fits but I struggle to lift him in and out as the council would not do wet room bathroom in an upstairs flat.

"We had to ask his physiotherapist to take Calum's walking frame away as he was confined to the living room with it as it was the safest due to the stairs.

"It was a squeeze to get through doors and we simply didn’t have room to keep it in the house.

"Fraser has just been discharged from hospital as he fell down the stairs with Calum’s wheelchair and badly hurt his back.

"It’s becoming dangerous now so hopefully they will do something.

"The discharge doctor gave us letter explaining if Fraser has to keep constantly doing this, it is going to cause him some serious damage. 

"Calum is being deprived the right to thrive, explore and be a toddler due to his needs, as he is confined to the living room because danger of the stairs.

She added: "We have been in contact with the council several times to request that we be rehoused to accommodate Calum’s daily needs and his equipment.

"We have filled in an application for accessible housing and we have been made aware that his application is live and has been now for a few months but he needs to be assessed by a council’s occupational therapist.

"Calum also has his own occupational therapist provide by the NHS but apparently a report from her is not acceptable."

A North Ayrshire Council spokesperson said this week: “We are sympathetic and understanding to any family in this situation and will do our utmost to support them in any way possible.

“It wouldn’t be appropriate for us to talk in detail about this case but the family can be assured that an occupational therapist will be carrying out a detailed assessment of the family’s housing needs at the earliest opportunity.”