- January.
- She was called in for an assessment.
- She and her sister
- spent two hours
- on two buses
- travelling to the centre
- for a two minute assessment.
- She was only asked one question:
- did you get here by bus?
- 53 years old,
- a former nurse.
- She was left partially sighted
- after an industrial accident in 1987.
- She required walking sticks.
- She had slipped and bulging discs
- in her back and neck
- after an accident at work.
- Her pain was exacerbated after an unsuccessful operation in 2012.
- Bones from her hand were removed
- during separate surgery
- after she was savaged by a dog.
- Every time one of her arms was touched
- she was left in agony
- strong pain relief could not ease.
- Did you get here by bus?
- She replied
- ‘Yes.’
- She was found fit to work.
- Her benefits were stopped.
- She hadn’t even had the chance
- to take her coat off.
- Later, she received a letter
- telling her to find employment.
- She lost her appeal against the decision.
- In November,
- thirteen days before her second appeal
- she was found
- on her kitchen floor.
[Daily Mirror, 26/11/2013, Sick nurse killed herself after disability benefits were cut and she was ruled ‘fit to work’ ; Daily Record, 27/11/2014, Former nurse killed herself after controversial ATOS health test ruled she was fit for work ; Bristol Post (via the Internet Archive), 25/11/2013, Bristol woman ‘killed herself after benefits were stopped’]