THE ageing mother of a severely disabled son says her pleas for help have been ignored as their home crumbles around them.

Kate Mattiasson cares alone for her 35-year-old son Lee, who has cerebral palsy and is almost completely paralysed, in their home on an isolated caravan park near Waltham Abbey.

She sold her house and gave up her job working for a housing association five years ago, after moving him out of a care home where she said he was desperately unhappy.

But Lee’s condition has deteriorated since he caught pneumonia and fell into a coma last year, and two freezing winters in succession have left their home in Breach Barns Park with problems including a collapsing ramp and a rotting back door.

The health of Mrs Mattiasson, 57, has also started to deteriorate and she has been diagnosed with polymyalgia, which attacks the muscles. But despite repeated appeals to the district council, she has been told they cannot be re-housed.

She said: “We have been fighting for the past two winters, which have caused us no end of problems. “When we had the snow, we couldn’t get the district nurse in, I couldn’t get out and we were isolated.

“The mobile home is situated in the middle of nowhere and because of the snow and ice no-one was able to get to us, which meant we were unable to get out of our home.

“We need to be near civilisation, where we can get to the shops and the carers can always get to us.”

The council has now told her to move Lee back into the care home he stayed in before, but Mrs Mattiasson is desperate to stay with her son.

She said: “At first it was wonderful and Lee would be going out all the time. But there was a change of manager and it was down to the point where the people in there were just sitting looking at the same four walls.

“If he went back into residential care I’m sure it would kill him.”

The Guardian is waiting for a response from Epping District Council.