Hilda still waiting for handrail that will allow her to leave her home

96-YEAR-OLD HAS BEEN LET DOWN AGAIN

- By GEORGE PALMER-SOADY

WHEN Hilda Pannell first contacted the Post, it was her last resort.

The 96-year-old widow had already spent months phoning almost everybody she could think of to try and get a new handrail fitted on the path by her house.

For Hilda - who has always been sociable since her childhood days in Radford - a handrail is the one thing that would allow her to leave the brick bungalow she moved into in 1993.

Formerly a dinner lady and later a carer for her parents, Hilda moved in to the property off Porchester Road, near Mapperley, after her husband died.

Some 32 years later, Hilda couldn't imagine living anywhere else and the bungalow has become her “forever home”.

But after falling over twice when walking down the public path to her house - one of those times hitting her head - Hilda has become “terrified” to leave her home without support.

While supported by a handrail on one side of the steep hill, it only stretches from her door to the top of the path. If the handrail was extended to the corner of the main road, it would give Hilda - who walks with a stick - the confidence she needs to be able to leave her home.

But what should have been a straightforward call to the council turned into an ongoing fight for anyone to listen or even give the 96-year-old the time of day.

Nottingham City Council, NHS third-party care providers and local disability charities are among the organisations Hilda tried to call for help with getting the handrail fitted.

Yet, after 85 days of repeated calls, letters, and perseverance, Hilda had got nowhere, with many of the conversations on the phone ending in the same way - directing her to online forms or in the form of contradicting messages between different departments.

It was only when the Post revealed Hilda's plight on June 13, that she began to get the help she had long called for.