Mum’s plea
‘Let my girl return to her home’
The mother of a Rutherglen woman who suffers from MS is begging council bosses to give her daughter her dignity back.
Carol Docherty was diagnosed with the disease eight years ago while working in Germany.
The mother of a Rutherglen woman who suffers from MS is begging council bosses to give her daughter her dignity back.
Carol Docherty was diagnosed with the disease eight years ago while working in Germany.
Since returning home her condition has deteriorated and she now needs a wheelchair.
But the 44-year-old is adamant she can still live on her own and wants to return to a house in Fernhill that was specially designed for her needs.
Carol, who attended St Anthony’s Primary and Trinity High, had been living in Sherry Heights in Cambuslang before council chiefs moved her into a care home, a situation her mum, Jean, described as a “nightmare”.
While there, a home was created for her in Fernhill.
However, on January 1 she contracted pneumonia and has been in hospital ever since, suffering from bed sores.
Jean, who still stays in Rutherglen, claims South Lanarkshire Council now want to put Carol back in a home.
But she insists her daughter would be better off living as independent a life as possible.
She said: “I want to see her in her own home. She is so adamant that she wants to live an independent life.
“The experience she had in the care home was enough to send her crazy.
“Since she went into hospital she is not getting any exercise and she seems to have deteriorated.
“She had a homehelp coming in to the house four times a day but the council are now saying there is no money for that.
“If she was allowed to go home and it doesn’t work then fair enough but she is not getting that opportunity. She is getting thrown around. I’m confident she could manage.”
Describing the affect MS has had on Carol’s life, Jean said: “I don’t think anyone really knows how to deal with MS, there’s nothing they can really do about it. There is medication to slow it down but that’s it.
“The first couple of years she was fine but it’s progressed so much since then and she now has a wheelchair.
“But having her own home would give her a wee bit of life.
“She is so frustrated right now, she just wants out.”
Marianne Hayward, head of health and social care at South Lanarkshire Health and Social Care Partnership, said: “We would offer the reassurance that Health and Social Care professionals are currently working closely with the family to develop a suitable support plan.”