Without a wheelchair, three months can pass without Philomena leaving her terrace house in Liverpool. The fifty-three-year-old has multiple chronic illnesses – heart disease, double incontinence and chronic fatigue – and each makes it hard for her to physically move. COPD, on top of heart disease, means she gets breathless when she walks. Her right leg throbs from cardiovascular disease and fibromyalgia causes burning pain. She can make it around thirty feet on crutches – about the length of three cars – before the pain kicks in. “The pain is horrendous, even to get to my neighbours. I can’t walk anywhere.”
Still, after asking the NHS for four years for a wheelchair, she’s been repeatedly turned down for help. “Everyone just says, ‘there’s no money for wheelchairs.’ Like you can magic one [yourself ] out of nowhere.”
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