Letter to the editor: I have just read your front page article in relation to the bed-bound Erith man who suffers from degenerative disc disease (Nightmare, September 10) and felt compelled to write.

I am a 39-year-old woman who also suffers from this disease and has done since my early 20s. I had the operation that the article mentions 10 years ago and although there is a chance of paralysis if the operation were to go wrong, the chances of this happening are minimal.

My surgeon had never known anyone this had happened to. Your article made it sound far more dramatic than it really is.

In the seven years prior to my operation, I held down a full-time job commuting into central London each day.

I did need occasional courses of physiotherapy and prescription pain killers, but I was certainly never bedbound – in fact, lying in bed makes it worse as your spine ceases up.

Since my operation I have had four children and still commute into central London four days a week and lead a normal, healthy life.

I am finding it difficult to have any empathy for Mr Tupper’s situation.

Maybe going back to a physical job such as an electrician may be out of the question, but the suggestion that he is too unfit to attend any courses is ridiculous.

He has fathered a child in the past couple of years so he is obviously capable of some degree of physical activity.

I feel Bexley borough has a bad enough reputation for being one of work-shy benefit claimers and by putting one of said people on the front page of your newspaper with a poor “the dog ate my homework” excuse, you are bringing it down even further.

How about promoting some good things that have happened in the community instead, such as the canal clear-up to show that there are people that are instigating change and want to make things better?

My suggestion to Mr Tupper would be to eat a better diet and try light physical exercise in an attempt to get his excess weight off – this is the worst thing for his spine – and attend the courses to gain a new skill.

Laying in bed every day is not healthy and his life will never improve this way. He should want to be a good role model for his two-year-old, otherwise 20 years from now we will be hearing similar excuses from the next work-shy generation.

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