A grandmother from Westhoughton says she has been left in excruciating pain after her hip replacement surgery was cancelled due to coronavirus.

Dorothy Jackson was due to have the procedure on April 2 this year, however 15 days before she was informed it would not take place.

She had previously had surgery on her other hip five years ago.

Mrs Jackson said: "I'm in so much pain it's unbelievable."

In August 2019, while tending to animals on her farm, her hip became painful and she was offered an appointment to see a specialist in October, which was postponed until November.

As the coronavirus situation remains uncertain, there’s been no sign of when Mrs Jackson will have her surgery.

Now the 62-year-old has been left unable to do daily activities, such as putting on socks, and struggles to get up and down stairs.

Mrs Jackson said: “It’s not fair at all, it seems cruel that me and so many others are waiting for operations and suffering in agony. It feels like we’ve been forgotten about.

“We wouldn’t keep animals in this much pain. It is awful, I can barely move, it hurts to get in and out of the bath.

“Unfortunately I can’t take many painkillers as they make me sick, but at the end of the day they just mask the pain and don’t solve the problem.

“I was meant to have surgery in April, as the procedure was cancelled just over two weeks before I must have been high up on the list.

“I know coronavirus and lockdown has had a huge impact on all of our lives, but they can’t just leave us all waiting.”

Normally Mrs Jackson leads an active life helping her husband to run their farm and she regularly tended to the animals. However, she has now been on crutches for several months.

Mrs Jackson said: “My husband and I usually do everything on the farm together, we are a team and always have been, but now I can’t do anything to help. It’s becoming very hard to get out of bed on a morning.

“This has taken over my life, we don’t live forever and I don’t know how long this will go on for.

“Having had hip replacement surgery before I know that the pain goes away immediately, it makes a huge difference. Right now I would go anywhere to have this operation”

Andy Ennis, chief operating officer at Bolton NHS Foundation Trust said: “We know that postponing treatment can cause a lot of upset for our patients and their families.

“We are working really hard with our partners to make sure that we can restart as much work as possible, so that we can provide the care and treatment that people need. However, with the current surge of COVID-19 cases this remains challenging.”