Tag: air strikes

87 Year Old Woman Dies After Developing Hypothermia

A 87 year old woman died after developing hypothermia at home after expressing concerns that she was worried about paying her energy bills.  

Barbara Bolton, 87, had previously told relatives she had felt cold after they had visited her at her home in Bury to check on her wellbeing. Sadly as a result she was rushed to Fairfield hospital where she was then diagnosed with hypothermia.

However despite the good care given by NHS medical professionals, her condition sadly deteriorated and as a result of her worsening condition she sadly died several weeks later.

Therefore an inquest into her death was opened at Rochdale Coroner’s Court, details can be found here.

Hospital notes given to the inquest indicate that her illness and subsequent death was linked to the fact she couldn’t afford to put her heating on.

Her son, Mark Bolton, 61, said his “proud” mum had refused his offer to help to pay her power bills as reported in the Mirror. She had been heating her home by using a single gas fire in her living room and used portable electric heaters to warm the rest of her two-bedroom house.

Ms Bolton had previously worked as a pharmacy assistant at her local Tesco until the age of 82 and she had lived at her home on Dawson Street in Bury for several decades.

Her son Mark told the inquest that he spoke to his mum every night and that she had told him that she was worried about her heating bills, despite assurances from him that he would cover the costs.

Mark said “She was concerned about all her bills because she was a pensioner. She was careful, she was mindful of the prices and worried about them going up,” he said.

Mark told the coroner that he had always told her to ‘just keep your heating on’ and ‘don’t worry about the bills mum.’ “But she was very stubborn and proud about paying her own way,” he said.

He told the hearing that his mum had ‘felt cold’ when she was found sat at her kitchen table by one of her grandchildren, who had gone round after the family had not been able to contact her.

Police coroner’s officer Jane Scullion told the hearing: “Barbara was admitted to hospital on December 11, 2022, with hypothermia, and a chest infection.

“During that time she continued to deteriorate. After a discussion, she was placed on end of life care and passed away.”

Assistant coroner for Manchester North Julie Mitchel adjourned the inquest and has requested statements from her doctor and asked for a medical cause of death to be provided.

“Her death was particularly accelerated by hypothermia and there is a possibility of self-neglect due to the lack of heating so her death has been referred to the coroner,” she said.

Hypothermia is caused by prolonged exposures to very cold temperatures and requires immediate medical intervention. Causes include not wearing warm clothes in winter, falling into cold water and living in a cold house.

Sadly I fear that her death caused by living in a cold house isn’t the first and will certainly not be the last. Thousands if not more people are being forced by an uncaring, cruel government to live in cold and in many cases, damp houses as a result of the ever increasing energy costs.

For those saying that she should have jut accepted the help offered, it isn’t always as easy for various reasons. Admitting that you’re poor and can’t afford to heat your home is a very difficult thing to have to admit, and as a parent this can be even harder.

Society deems that parents should look after their children and not the other way round, and asking your children for help can make a parent feel like an absolute failure, and she wouldn’t have made her decision lightly.

This nightmare isn’t going to end soon, I wish it was.The reality is that thousands, including myself are counting down the days until spring arrives and warmer weather returns, it can’t come a minute too soon.

The government has absolutely no intention of changing things for the better, they prefer to spend their time trying to cover up senior ministers deception and lies rather than help those in need.

It’s one rule for them and one for us and the death of Ms Bolton and others won’t bother them in the slightest.

I don’t receive any payment for the work that I do and to say it’s a struggle is an understatement..

If you would like to support my work and can afford to there’s a donate button at the top and side of this blog page.

I’m struggling to pay my internet bill which is due in a few days and keep myself warm like so many of you are too.

Every penny will be put to good use to enable me to fight the good fight for much longer.

Thank you for your support and a huge thank you to everyone that shares and reads my blog posts

Important News For Bus Fares Outside Of London

Disabled Woman Wins Court Battle With DWP

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/sep/23/disabled-woman-wins-legal-challenge-against-dwp-over-automatic-benefit-deduction?CMP=share_btn_tw

Sanctions return for new style ESA and JSA and Universal Credit


As we quickly approach Christmas and a cold hungry winter once again the DWP are going to bring back the cruel sanction system.

They never miss a chance to make Christmas even more harder do they.


Sanctions relating to the claimant commitment had been suspended due to the pandemic.

It is very clear that the DWP are now back to business including sanctioning sick and disabled claimants.


According to Touch base the DWP are quoted as saying“This week a change was made to bring the obligations in new style JSA and ESA benefits in line with those in Universal Credit”

“This will mean that, as is the case for Universal Credit claimants, if someone in receipt of new style JSA and ESA fails to do what they have agreed to in their Claimant Commitment without good reason – such as having or caring for a child, or a change to a health condition – their payments may be reduced for a set period. This is known as a sanction.”

“All Claimant Commitments are tailored to a person’s personal circumstances and local jobs market, and claimants affected by this change are being informed of the introduction of the new process. Sanctions are only applied as a last resort when a claimant is not engaging with the commitment they have made. If someone disagrees with a decision they can ask for it to be looked at again.”

This is all rather scary as the government have now passed on the onus of sanctioning decisions to the Job Coaches and not a decision maker.

Sanctions aren’t always a last resort decision and I’m speaking from years of experience helping people to appeal sanction decisions. Also since when have the DWP taken children into consideration… They haven’t.

I’m sure that many of you reading this have had so called Job Coaches that take an obvious dislike you you. I’ve also experienced this and I know exactly what it’s like. It’s soul destroying.

I’ve experienced having a Job Coach that clearly hated me. She would find holes in everything that I did and tried to sanction me at every opportunity that came her way.

Luckily I was able to make a complaint about her which involved my local MP.

I changed Job Coaches but she would glare at me every time that I walked past her. I have mentioned this in a previous blog post.

My question is this… How many innocent people are going to be wrongfully sanctioned because of this very reason?

It’s also worrying that there could well be even more sanction targets (offloads). Therefore the need to reach these targets will cause the suffering and distress of thousands of people.

Basically the whole sanctioning process could well be ramped up a whole lot more..

Opinion isn’t fact and there are many valid reasons why a claimant has not been able to to fulfill their claimant commitment.

Illness, lack of money for essentials such as no money to top up mobile phones or to have access to the internet at home.

Access to libraries is fast becoming a rarity these days. The DWP demands that claimants have access to the internet at all times.

Essentialy if an Job Coach decides in their opinion that a claimant hasn’t done enough then they’ll sanction them.

Remember once again opinion isn’t always fact and this is a very dangerous precept to use.

The whole sanction system should be abolished. There’s absolutely no reason why a person should have their very basics for survival to be snatched off them by the click of a button. Which is based upon the opinion of a Job Coach. Remember opinion isn’t always fact.

Whilst we are still in the midst of a pandemic the government and the DWP have now returned to normal. Don’t expect them to care because they obviously don’t.

Keep a good written and digital record (if you can) of everything that you’ve done to fulfill your claimant commitment.

If you’ve been ill or suchlike also try to keep a record of whatever you can to prove that you’ve been ill.

It’s important that you do all this because sanctioning you will be a whole lot harder if you keep a good record of everything.

Photo by Breakingpic on Pexels.com

If you are in the Greater Manchester area please have a look and even join in with Greater Manchester DPAC (Disabled People Against Cuts) activities. You can find them here at https:\\manchesterdpac.com

Please read, share, tweet and email my blog posts. It helps enormously to get the truth out there.

How am I? I’m ok apart from catching a sickness bug yesterday hence my blog being late. My apologies.

A huge thank you to everyone that has supported my campaign and blog. I really couldn’t have done it without you.

I don’t receive any payment for any of the work that I do. If anyone would like to donate there is a donate button at the top and side of this blog post.

DWP agrees to waive hardship payment debts.

Please click on the below link from the Public Law Project.

If you are told to repay back hardship payment debts make sure that you challenge this.

It is your legal right to do so. If needed quote the below article and insist that the DWP use their discretion regarding payment of hardship payment debt.

Insist that these payments are causing distress and suffering, which they do for thousands of people.

This is also essential because the majority of claimants already have monies garnished from their payments for council tax debt and suchlike.

No one should be forced to live in extreme hardship such as this.

I expect that the DWP won’t like this so don’t expect them to suggest it to you.

https://publiclawproject.org.uk/latest/dwp-agrees-to-waive-hardship-payment-debts-after-successful-judicial-review/

Please like, share and tweet my blog. It’s very important to get the truth and the reality of our life’s out there.

I don’t get paid for anything that I do but I do want to continue to be able to continue to write my blog and continue with my campaign.

For anyone that would like to donate there’s a donate button at the top and side of this blog post.

A huge thank you to everyone that and has supported my blog and campaign. This makes such a big difference.

No blog update this week. .

Dear readers and subscribers, I’m very sorry but there’s not going to be a blog post this week.

I was told that my son had died on Friday and I’m trying to deal with it and organise his funeral etc.

I will be writing a new blog post as soon as I’m able.

There is a crowdfunding page relating to this on both my Facebook and Twitter account.

Thank you , solidarity Charlotte.

Remembering all women. International Women’s Day.

“Happy International Women’s day!
Today I’m thinking about all the women who are suffering as a result of the government’s austerity measures.

Women unable to leave abusive relationships because there isn’t a women’s refuge that they can escape to.

Remembering all the women that have died as a result of domestic violence and the governments austerity measures, we’ll never forget you.

We love you.

Women struggling to survive the discrimitory universal credit system.

Disabled women who are struggling to survive because their ESA and/ or PIP has been taken away from them.

To all the 1950s women unable to claim their rightful pensions.

Homeless women stuck in flea ridden, unsafe temporary accommodation, one day things will get better for you.

Please have them in your thoughts, the battle for equality is far from over.”

Please read, share and tweet my blog. This makes a huge difference and it helps to get the truth out there.

I don’t receive any funding for both my campaign and blog. If you would like to donate there’s a donate button at the top and side of this blog post.

A huge thank you to everyone that has and does support my blog and campaign. It really means the worl to me and your help makes a massive difference.

Covid 19 the unwanted gift that keeps giving.

Dear readers it’s been a tough old week for me and my Covid 19 battle.
Sadly I rebounded again and I’m now completing my fifth round of antibiotics.

Tough yes but however I do know and I appreciate that I have it much better than many have had it. I’m alive and I’m very grateful for that.

So yesterday I ended up back at the hospital with yet another reoccurrence of the pains that I’ve been getting.

I wanted answers, I wanted to know why I keep feeling like this. I hate the unknown which doesn’t fit well with Covid 19.

I had my bloods taken, x rays and scans done and I waited for the results.

Eventually I saw a lovely doctor who totally got it, he understood exactly what I’ve been going through.
He explained that my bloods are OK but from the scans he could see scarring on my lungs.

I then asked him about the pains and my sometimes galloping heart rate.


The answer was this. Because of the pneumonia and pleurisy my lungs have taken a battering and the pains are as a result of the remnants of the above and the scarring.

I asked him about my heart rate and he said that my heart appeared to be ok after being on a heart monitor. He said that lots of people who have had covid 19 get this and so far they don’t know why.
He’s referred me to a respiratory specialist and another specialist regarding my heart rate and for more tests.

Covid 19 damages your body in so many ways and because its an unknown virus it’s hard to get answers about anything.
Research is being done though and maybe we will get some answers soon.


I got some very good advice from the doctor and my friends. I need to stop trying to to too much, I will heal but it takes quite a long time to get back to somewhat normality.

This doesn’t mean that I’m going to give up campaigning though, infact it means the opposite.

We need to continue to campaign more than we have done before.
Our rights are being eroded away at a fast rate and so many things are being missed because of the Covid 19 pandemic.

Every day I publish the official Covid death rates, you know the deaths that the government wants us to forget about. They want the public to forget about Covid 19. It’s up to us to continue to publicise them.

Covid 19 is still having a massive impact both national and locally.

Whilst I was at the hospital yesterday I saw three very ill people being admitted to the hospital because of Covid 19. I know this because covid patients are being directed to another specialised department.
Their stories are the stories that the public don’t get to hear. The man that collapsed at home because of covid, the woman found in her bed seriously ill, the man that walked into the department and nearly collapsed when he got there.

Remember that their and our life’s don’t matter to the government and to some local authorities. Out of sight and out of mind.

Please keep in mind that telephone medical assessments are taking place once again.
If you have to have one of these examinations treat it as if you were at their medical centre.
Have a list of all of your medications and illnesses or disabilities. Try and have someone with you and ask them to take notes also.

I’m going to continue to plod on as I say, trying my best to give my daughter a good childhood despite having a very deminished income.
I can honestly say that I’ve never felt so bad about being a bad mother because I can’t give my daughter what her friends have.
Every day I feel this guilt like many parents do. Tough some say, that’s life. Except that it shouldn’t be like this.

The kindness and support of my friends has kept me going as have OUR NHS.
I’m determined to be back out there ASAP but I’m still helping people the best way they I can from home.

I want to thank each and every one of you for the support and friendship that you have given me. When I say that it means a lot to me I really mean it.

Stay safe everyone, wear a mask and wash your hands. Self isolate if your vulnerable and do whatever is right for you to continue.


Please read, share, tweet and email my blog. Thank you so much to everyone that already does this.

For anyone who would like to donate there’s a donate button at the top and side of this blog. Thank you x

Covid 19 symptoms and me.

Dear readers I must apologise for my absence of late. Last week I started with symptoms of covid 19 and I’m still ill although a tad improved.

Reading about covid 19 and actually having it are two completely different things. Nothing can prepare you for how awful it is and I’ve had a mild dose.

I’ve spent about a week in bed now not able to do much having to rely on my daughter to help me which I didn’t like doing.

The most scary things about this awful virus are the high temperature, I had some pretty funky hallucinations and difficulty breathing.
Everything takes so much effort.
Each symptom comes in at differing times not all at once and they come and go so it’s very hard to predict how you are from one day to the next.
I am hopefully getting better now but I’m taking it one day at a time.

Having to rely on friends to pick up food for me is awful because I’m so used to doing everything myself.
I’ve become reliant on online shopping to buy dog and cat food and other items, because I can’t go out means I can’t get any bargains so everything is more expensive.
When your money has been spent that’s it, tough there’s nothing that you can do.

I am worried about everyone thats suffering from these symptoms and are alone at home with no one to help. It’s so scary and no one wants to go into hospital unless it’s really necessary.

Last night I was struggling with my breathing but luckily I was OK, if my condition worsened then my daughter would take care of me.

So many people have died from this awful virus and the government haven’t done much if anything to help. They just don’t care about people like us.
Their negligence is astounding and I believe that when this is all over they should be made to pay for this.

My thoughts and prayers are with the people that have died from covid 19 and related illnesses and also their families. They can’t even have a proper funeral for them. Its awful, really awful.
I’m certain that the death figures are so much higher than is stated.

My thanks go to our fabulous NHS workers that have been keeping people alive and the keyworkers keeping everything going and at the same time putting their own health at risk.

I’m so sorry that I’ve been behind with this blog and I’m hoping that I’m back to normal ASAP, I’m missing real life, my walks in the woods with my dog.

This illness has taught me to appreciate every little thing more than I did and it taught me to swallow my pride and ask for help.

Please stay at home, only go out for essential items, take your exercise away from other people and wear a mask when you do need to go out. Wash your hands as well.
This is all very important because you really don’t want to catch this.

A huge thanks to my friends and followers for helping me to get through this.

Please share my blog and tweet and email it.

If anyone would like to donate there is a donate button at the top and side of this blog.

Thank you all so much.

The government needs to reverse all sanctions and reinstate ESA and PIP payments immediately due to the coronavirus Covid 19 outbreak.

Dear readers and supporters I hope that you are coping the best that you can during this very uncertain and worrying time.

It’s ok for the government to say self isolate when you have no food and many of the local food banks have shut their doors due to the coronavirus. They’re finding it hard to hand do their work because they can’t source any food to hand out and supermarkets have understandably put restrictions on purchases.

As I was waiting for Gordon to arrive with the food parcels I had a conversation with a man that I’ve spoken about before. He ran up to me saying ‘Thank God you’re here because everywhere else is shut’ I reassured him that I will do my best to help for as long as I can.

He told me about his struggles trying to get help, saying ‘It’s OK for organisations and councils to say phone us or email them. I don’t have the ability to do that. I’m sanctioned because I lost my mobile phone and I missed a text telling me to attend an appointment’

I asked him if he was coping and he told me that he wasn’t really. He’s been given an old mobile phone that doesn’t have good access to the Internet and anyway he can’t afford to buy any credit.

I asked him to register his new number with the DWP by going into the Jobcentre and to let them know that he hasn’t got any access to the Internet. I also asked him if he can also ask about his sanction to see if anything could be done to help him.

Sadly there are so many more people finding themselves in the same position as he is in. Many are also stuck in limbo awaiting decisions for ESA and PIP appeal and tribunal decisions. They too are struggling with little or no financial assistance and now find themselves feeling very vulnerable and left behind.

I’ve asked the DWP via Twitter if they can reverse all sanctions and reinstate all ESA and PIP payments immediately. Extremely vulnerable people need to have the means to survive. Sadly not enough people are taking this seriously maybe because its not happening to them.

Just ask yourself if you could cope in this time of crisis with no income at all. Sat in the cold with no access to help.

So we are left with a barely skeleton service given by local support organisations, food banks have had to shut, doctors surgeries are mainly only accepting telephone appointments, libraries have shut and thousands of people are very worried about how they were survive. They’re also very worried about catching coronavirus (Covid 19)

Schools are shutting their doors to all pupils except children of keyworkers and vulnerable children.

Whilst I agree with the closure of schools the government needs to be much clearer about the voucher system that they’re supposed to be putting into place.

It’s also extremely difficult to source food because selfish hoarders are stripping the shelves of most food products. The supermarkets are supposed to be implementing strict rules so let’s hope that this will help.

Please remember to follow full hygiene protocols, this is very important. Check on your friends amd neighbours to see if they’re OK.

I want all my readers to know that I’m here for you if you want to chat, feel free to email me or follow me on social media.

Together we can be stronger and we will get through this.

Please read, share, tweet and email my blog.

I have a donate button at the top and side of this blog post for anyone who would like to donate.