GOING outside our home is something the majority of us take for granted.
But it is something Jenny Rigby is unable to do.
Barring a couple of visits to hospital – where she has been stretchered out – she hasn't left her home in Amber Hill, Bestwood Estate, for nearly three years.
The problem – her wheelchair won't fit through her front door.
Miss Rigby, 67, has rheumatoid arthritis in both arms and knees.
The condition has worsened to the extent she can no longer stand up to fold the wheelchair to get it through her door as she used to.
She takes morphine to control the pain caused by the condition, while she also has osteoporosis and asthma.
The size of her kitchen means she can't turn her wheelchair round, having to come out backwards, and she is unable to reach cupboards.
Her bathroom is also a very tight squeeze.
"I don't know what to do any more," she said. "I don't get out. I just sit here day in, day out. If I'm not just sat in the lounge, I'm laying in my bed. I'm fed up with it."
Miss Rigby said she contacted Nottingham City Homes, which owns her bungalow, when her condition deteriorated in 2010.
Her problems go back more than 35 years to 1977.
She had been working as a nurse in the Army and was stationed at Ripon in Yorkshire when she fell down a flight of stairs and through a glass door at the bottom.
She was paralysed from the waist down for several months and was left with severe arthritis. She was also left with glass in her back which surgeons haven't been able to remove in case it leaves her permanently paralysed.
She added: "That's when all my problems started. I was paralysed for a while and I've been left in a wheelchair.
"I need to be either moved or have my door widened.
"I'm on the waiting list for a new home and I have been told it's not possible for the door to be widened. So I'm stuck."
Carers from Sterling Homecare visit Miss Rigby regularly, while her daughter Anna has to bring her shopping.
Bestwood Councillor Brian Grocock said he had picked up Miss Rigby's case but added that Nottingham City Homes was struggling to find a suitable property with wide enough doorways.
He said one property had been offered but Miss Rigby had turned it down because it was on a hill.
A spokesman for Nottingham City Homes said: "We're very sympathetic to Jennifer Rigby's situation and we're working very closely with her to find her a new home.
"Potential properties are being identified on a regular basis however she has very complex and specific needs, such as the property needing concrete floors and a ramp that is not too steep. Unfortunately this means they are being ruled as being unsuitable for Miss Rigby."
