A PENSIONER has told of her “hellish” nightmare at feeling trapped in her own home.

A PENSIONER has told of her “hellish” nightmare at feeling trapped in her own home.

Jenny Marrin, 90, has been left without a telephone or emergency cord in her south Hatfield residence for over a week.

The great grandmother-of-four, grandmother-of-three and mum-of-two, has been left “unable to cope” since her phone cable stopped working at 4.30am on Monday of last week.

BT staff have been out to the property to try and establish the cause, but when the Welwyn Hatfield Times went to press on Tuesday the problem had still not been resolved.

Ms Marrin, pictured right, who lives alone and suffers with arthritis and mobility problems, said she hadn’t stopped worrying about how she’d seek help if an emergency occurred at home.

“It has made me ill and I have not been able to cope,” she said.

“I don’t know why it has taken so long [for BT to fix]; it has been over a week.

“It is really worrying that if I needed to pull the cord in an emergency it would not work.”

She added: “It has been hell.

“I have no faith in them [BT] getting the issue solved.”

Ms Marrin’s daughter Carole Hanna, 66, and her husband John, 65, were so concerned about the issue they travelled up from Devon on Sunday to look after her for a few days.

Son-in-law Mr Hanna said: “We couldn’t just leave her alone without a house phone or emergency cord, anything could happen to her.

“If she fell over she could be laid there for goodness knows how long.

“Jenny is fairly disabled but mentally she is as sharp as a needle. But with all of this, she is not coping very well.

“This is a disgrace.

“BT have got to sort it out.”

A spokeswoman for Welwyn Hatfield Community Housing Trust, which owns Ms Marrin’s property, said on Monday they had been liaising with BT to try and get the problem fixed.

BT said they were hoping to provide a temporary solution while they work out a full repair.

A spokesman added: “This line was cut by third party contractors working in the area.

“We have been to site to assess the damage and it appears to be a complex repair. We are doing all we can to get this completed as quickly as possible.”