An 82-year-old who cares for her wheelchair-bound daughter has called for better mobile coverage in Aberdeenshire after being left cut off for three days.
Ann Macpherson and her daughter Sheila Summers were left isolated at home in Auchleven for almost 72 hours after Storm Arwen left them with no power.
During the blackout, the pair found themselves with no means of communication or emergency line after being transferred onto BT’s digital voice network just days before the storm.
The mobile network was also down in their area, taking away their lifeline to the outside world.
Mrs Macpherson said she was terrified something would happen to Sheila, who has been in a wheelchair since contracting a “devastating” virus in 1993.
The 54-year-old was working as a junior doctor in Glasgow, having passed her surgical fellowship, when she became seriously ill and was left completely paralysed.
Over time, she recovered enough to be able to live independently in a wheelchair for a short time before moving in with her mum.
But her illness has left her reliant on the use of a hoist to move from her chair, for example to get into bed.
‘It was terrible and scary’
Mrs Macpherson said: “The week before the storm, on November 18, BT transferred us onto digital voice. We didn’t get a choice. They transferred us because it was part of their upgrades.
“However, in their small print, it does say you will be left without an emergency line.
“At the same time as the storm, all the mobiles didn’t work. Somebody said the wi-fi mast was off.
“I couldn’t call for help during those hours.
“If Sheila’s hoist fails, I have to support her in some way while phoning next door or up the road for help. That can’t happen because I can’t call for help.
“I couldn’t really get out of the house because of the snow and ice.
“I was left with the choice of leaving her hanging in the hoist and letting her break her knees, or her ankles or dislocate her arms.”
Mrs Macpherson praised those in the community for checking in on them, and dropping off food parcels, but said it was a worry between those times.
“Our friend Sandra was absolutely wonderful but still she would say ‘I will come down at lunchtime or down in the afternoon’. If something had happened in between times, we would have had to lie on the floor until she came,” she said.
“We survived the weekend because of lovely, lovely people who eventually thought, we better knock on their door to see if they are alright.
“It’s a very unusual set of circumstances but I need an emergency line.”
Boosting connectivity
Thousands of households across the north-east were left without power for days in the aftermath of the gale force winds.
Prior to the blackout, Mrs Macpherson called SSEN to make them aware of their situation, as they regularly receive a welfare call from the energy company during power cuts.
However, their message offering help failed to reach the family until Tuesday.
One local SSEN engineer searching for storm damage did go to the house last Sunday after neighbours made him aware of their situation.
Mrs Macpherson now feels more should be done to boost the area’s mobile network to ensure the situation never happens again – for her or any other vulnerable family.
She said: “What I think needs to happen is that BT, the energy companies and the mobile companies need to get together to do some boosting of the mobile systems.
“We are only on 3G. My son was saying if his connection went down in Glasgow, he could get switched to 4G and he would still be alright. We can’t, we’re stuck.”
Simple acts of kindness
Amidst the uncertainty, the generosity and kindness of neighbours and friends became their lifeline.
Mrs Macpherson issued a heartfelt thanks to those who took the time to help in their time of need.
“We want to thank all our friends and neighbours for how wonderful they were,” she said.
“I like to believe that in a crisis of any sort, everybody at the time does what they think is best.
“We do have a generator but it hasn’t been used for quite a while. I’m 82 and I can’t run it and neither can Sheila. Our neighbour Brian, an electrician, came over and started the engine but he couldn’t get a charge out of it.
“He lent us his generator on Sunday night for an hour and a half to charge Sheila’s hoist so we could still use that.
“People like that and the people who came with soup and cake, it was lovely and greatly appreciated.”