A DISABLED mum is starting to live her life again after her home was transformed to give her back her freedom.

For years, Mona Patel had struggled to get around her Bolton home as the genetic condition GNE myopathy affects muscles needed to perform everyday tasks.

Mona, an equality and diversity specialist at Manchester Metropolitan University, has praised Bolton building firm Allman Builders for making her house a home.

The mum-of-one said: “I don’t want any other patient to go through what I went through. I don’t want anybody else to feel that isolation.

“I was an able-bodied person up till the age of about 26 and noticed that my legs felt really heavy, and I kept tripping over.

“I just thought I was clumsy, I needed to hit the gym.

“I kept falling more and it was after a really bad fall a really helpful colleague of mine, a professor, said ‘I think you need to go and see a doctor’.

“I was confused, I was bewildered, I was frightened – I didn’t know what the future held for me. My legs got weaker, my arms got weaker. I couldn’t lift my legs up on to the stairlift so that’s when the physiotherapist said you need to get a through-floor lift put in the house.”

Mona said: “We looked at four or five builders and Roy from Allman Builders said straight away ‘Mona, I’m going to make it my mission to get you back into that garden’.

“It’s great having the large amount of space. I can now whizz about in my wheelchair comfortably, I can walk about in my walker.

“We’ve been in this house 11 years. Before, it was beautiful, but now it’s not just a house, it’s a home.”

Mr Allman said: “Mona had never been able to go outside and it was very heart-warming when she was finally able to go into the garden.

“We also installed a ramp at her mother’s house nearby because she hadn’t been able to visit her for several years.

“As Mona’s condition gets worse, it was important to make sure the house would meet her needs for the future as well.

“We’ve made her house a home again. It meant so much to us to see what a difference it made to Mona and her family and we have become good friends.”