Ellee Seymour

Trudy’s ravaged foot

Trudy and Malcolm at No 10.

This is a picture of Trudy Lapinskis foot ravaged by a devastating neurological syndrome called Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy. According to her consultant, it is believed to be the worst case of its kind in the country.

It’s impossible to believe that people in the United Kingdom, in this modern day and age, with our brilliant medical knowledge and super technology, can suffer from a condition that looks like this.

One cannot imagine how Trudy has managed to live with this, how terrifying it must have been for her. Can you imagine how you would feel if you had to live with something as awful as this?

The foot was obviously amputated, though ironically that worsened Trudy’s condition by stimulating the nerve endings, and she is now losing the use of her other foot and one hand too.

Yet amazingly after two years Trudy, is still waiting for Fenland District Council to allocate her a disabled parking bay outside her home in Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire.

“The council said they would be setting a precedent if they gave me a disabled parking bay,” said Trudy, who is only 44.

“It is really difficult if I can’t park my van outside my house when I come out of hospital. I have to use a ramp into the van which enables me to get in with my wheelchair and I rely on a driver because of the poor condition of my limbs”.

Her plight struck a chord with North East Cambs MP Malcolm Moss who last July accompanied Trudy to 10 Downing Street when she handed in a petition signed by 2,000 people urging the government to do more to help people with this terrible condition.

Malcolm also tabled an Early Day Motion in the House of Commons, supported by 51 MPs, expressing deep concern at the large number of people suffering from this syndrome who are not receiving prompt and adequate treatment through the NHS because of a lack of awareness about the rare condition.

It is a truly shocking syndrome. Trudy developed it in 1994 after knocking her back on the corner of a table. It resulted in chronic pain which was out of porportion for the injury. Up until then she lived a normal life and enjoyed going out clubbing. She says it often affects sportsmen and women, though usually to a lesser degree.

The intense pain spread to other parts of her body, affecting the skin, bones, circulatory and neurological system.

It can be treated by pain management and therapy if diagnosed early enough, hence Trudy’s desperate desire to constantly raise awareness among the medical profession, which includes holding a national conference in London later in December chaired by Malcolm.

She can barely type her admin for this event due to the discomfort and pain this causes, but she carries on relentless, always offering support to other sufferers.

In the time I have known Trudy, she has always been totally selfless, never complaining about the raw deal life dealt her as her condition gradually worsens, and faced with additional worries about the continuing availability of the only drug that works for her.

Who will listen to Trudy?

My MEP Robert Sturdy is today meeting farmers in his constituency in Norfolk and one subject will be at the top of the agenda - the shambolic handling by Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett over the new style farm support payments.

Mrs Beckett has conceded that some payments will still be outstanding when the European Union’s deadline expires at the end of June, hence the introduction of interim payments.

Incompetence by The Rural Payments Agency has been blamed, as well as a new computer-based mapping system used to validate claims.

I called the NFU yesterday and was told that the agency is currently validating 2,000 claims a week, but that 60,000 are still outstanding. That means it would take up until Bonfire Night to complete the claims under the present system. That is their pessimistic view. The new payments for 2007 are then due to be made from December.

However, a new method of validation is to be introduced to speed up the process, but how effective that will be remains to be seen as staff will have to be retrained and will still take their holidays too. Surely interim payments will involve repetition of claims and extra time spent on validation. It seems likely that several thousand farmers will not have been paid by the June deadline.

Mr Sturdy believes Mrs Beckett’s job should be on the line and is urging European Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel to put pressure on the British governemnt to sort out the fiasco without further delay.

It is causing considerable hardship to many farmers who are estimated to be spending around £10 million a month in interest charges.

From what I understand, payments are being made successfully to farmers throughout other parts of the EU - I think we would have heard about it if the French farmers were still out of pocket.