'˜I feel trapped in this room' says Harborough woman who can't climb the stairs in her own home

Cate Whitmore (42) has almost no feeling below the navel after falling downstairs while cleaning a friend’s home.

Now she can’t climb the stairs of her own terraced town home, and has had to convert her front room into her bedroom.

“I sometimes feel I’m going to spend the rest of my days on my hospital bed in this front room” she said.

She wants to raise money for an extension to her home which will allow her to have a separate bedroom downstairs and an accessible bathroom.

She has been showering at a friend’s house.

“I haven’t got a living room any more” she said. “My children (aged 13 and 11) can sit with me for meals, but then they’re back up to their own rooms!”

She lives in an old terraced house with stairs designed in a tight spiral - a stairlift is not possible.

Harborough Town Football Club are letting her have a room free to host a Summertime Ball on Saturday, September 8 from 7pm until midnight, with a buffet and a disco.

Tickets are £15 for adults and £5 for children 4-16, but free for children aged three and under.

Email [email protected] for ticket enquiries and sales.

Cate has now spent months in different hospitals, but her spinal damage is permanent.

It was worsened when she fell off the sofa she was sleeping on in her front room. Now she has a hospital bed.

She has a carer who helps her cope at home for a few hours a day.

But she said: “I don’t feel I’m living a full life. I need a proper bedroom downstairs - not just a living room you step into from the front door - and an accessible wet room.

“But of course that’s very expensive - thousands of pounds - and I can’t afford it or really see a way of getting that sort of money.

“But I really think that a small extension could transform my life and enable me to live a reasonable life in the house that myself and the boys are already in.”