Thank you for telling this story Frances. What a terrible situation, and to then be threatened with worse by the very people who could have helped you?! Shocking.

I can empathise to a point as I care for my partner, who became disabled through long-term illness fifteen years ago. I struggle, given my own decades with multiple chronic pain and fatigue causing conditions. And our house is in a disgraceful state. We have the British welfare system to lean on, but so little understanding comes our way, even from extended family. I know exactly what you mean about having kept going for your cats, I felt that deeply, I've had exactly those thoughts myself on occasion over the years.