Coronavirus: Lockdown left woman 'down to last slice of bread'

The woman in her 60s told the Disability Direct charity she had no other food in the house

A charity said it discovered a woman who was down to her last slice of bread during lockdown checks on disabled people.

Disability Direct said it organised food parcels for the Derby woman, who was in her 60s and has ME.

Amo Raju, who runs the charity, said the checks led them to other people in Derbyshire who had "no food whatsoever".

He said he expected the second lockdown to throw up more "horror stories".

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The charity contacted every client and former client on its books when the second lockdown was announced.

That included the woman with ME - also known as chronic fatigue syndrome.

The woman told the charity she had no other food in the house and no relatives living nearby.

Disability Direct was able to step in and provide regular food parcels to the woman in Derby

Mr Raju said many vulnerable disabled people had been entirely forgotten.

"We had people in Spondon and in Heanor who were living in well-populated residential areas who just had no food whatsoever and had we not been in contact, they probably would have gone without," he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

He said a lot of disabled people were suffering "massive amounts of anxiety" during lockdown and have had even more social isolation than normal.

Mr Raju is asking the public to "really pay attention to disabled people" in their neighbourhoods.

"I am really worried that after all this we will hear some horror stories from people who were just left without," he said.

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