A CONCERNED mother claims her daughter’s health is being put at risk because they have been put into unsuitable temporary accommodation.

Chantelle Day’s 14-year-old daughter Shania has coeliac disease and suffers severe reactions if she does not follow a strict gluten free diet.

But the family were placed in a shared hostel at Barns Road, Ferndown, when they became homeless immediately before Christmas and now have to share a fridge, cooker and utensils with several other families.

Chantelle is so worried their food will become contaminated, she has resorted to travelling to her friend’s house to cook all of the family’s meals.

She said: “Her condition is extremely serious, she can’t have one breadcrumb contaminate her food.

“If she does eat the wrong food, it knocks her out for three or four days. It is almost like she has a hangover, she has massive headaches and stomach ache and just needs to sleep.

“Because her reaction is so severe, we all follow a gluten-free diet but I am constantly worried about cross-contamination.

“We have one shelf in a shared fridge and have to share two ovens with the other bedsit occupants. All it would take is for someone buttering their toast to transfer a few breadcrumbs into our butter and she would be ill and off school.

“I have asked for my own cooking facilities but the council has not been very sympathetic.

“It’s very frustrating – if a child was in a wheelchair they would put ramps in place, why can’t her condition be treated the same?” Steve Duckett, head of health and housing at East Dorset District Council, said the hostel was a temporary solution for Chantelle and her three children.

But he said it was “feasible” to provide the family with separate cooking facilities.

He said: “With regard to the condition of the property we have discussed this with her landlord and have also investigated whether a separate fridge and cooking facilities could be placed in one of their rooms.

“This is feasible and Ms Day has been advised accordingly.

“Ms Day has applied on the housing register for housing in East Dorset and her application has not yet been fully assessed by the Housing Service.

“We are waiting for further information and will resolve this shortly.”