Thame Mum Faces Long Wait For New Home

27 February 2013, 06:00 | Updated: 27 February 2013, 11:20

A mum from Thame, whose husband was left brain-damaged after a rugby accident, says it could take years to get him home because of a housing shortage.

Alex Wood suffered a head injury during rugby training in October 2011. He has been left blind and severely disabled.

His wife Tamsyn looks after their four young children and travels two hours a day to see Alex at his care home in Amersham.

The family is on a waiting list for a bigger house that would be able to accommodate Alex's disabilities - but a housing shortage means it could take years before an appropriate home is found.

South Oxfordshire District Council has confirmed they are looking for a place for them but that it could take a while.

Alex is currently receiving a few hours of physio a week, but Tamsyn has told Heart she would be able to spend more time helping him with his speech and physical therapy if he lived at home. 

She says he comes alive when he's around his family; "As soon as he hears my voice and the children's voices his head just rises up and his eye are wide and he's so animated, a different person."

But the mum-of-four is worried time is running out; "Research shows that within the first 18 month to 2 years after a brain injury, that's the most most crucial time for input and for the patient to recover - anything after that you can hope for but there's no guarantees".

Tamsyn also writes blogs about her experiences looking after her four children while her husband Alex gets treatment. You can find them at: http://manic-mums.blogspot.co.uk/ or on the website for Alex: http://makingwavesforalex.co.uk/