A FORMER director of a national charity who is crippled with steroid side-effects has made a last-ditch plea to be given a bungalow.

Janice Fairbridge, 45, said she must leave her home at South Bank, near Middlesbrough, because her medical condition was worsening.

Earlier this year, she was forced to close the steroid action group Gasp, a national charity helping sufferers of side-effects caused by their medicines, because she was too ill to continue.

Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council has agreed to buy her house in Costa Street, as long as Mrs Fairbridge and her husband, Stuart, leave by the end of this month, when the new financial year starts.

The authority agreed to pay £15,500 for their home, which is significantly more than they would receive on the open market. However, the deal is only open for a few more weeks.

And, with time running out, Mrs Fairbridge fears the deal could fall through because red tape is making it impossible for her to find another home.

Although there are bungalows adapted for disabled people, most housing associations will only let them to older tenants.

Mrs Fairbridge said the policy discriminated against younger people. Wheelchair-bound Mrs Fairbridge has a condition called chronic obstruction pulmonary disorder, osteoporosis and diabetes, and rarely leaves home.

She has shown notes about her terminal condition from her GP, occupational therapist and respiratory physiology specialists, to housing associations and councils across the Tees Valley and North Yorkshire to try to find a home.

Her husband has now written to the Redcar-based Coast and Country Housing Association.

She said: "It is basically a begging letter. We would be prepared to go to an unadapted bungalow, but I really cannot cope with a house with stairs any more, and my doctors say we should move."

A Coast and Country spokeswoman said: "We have received the letter from Mr and Mrs Fairbridge outlining their revised request.

"We are sympathetic to Mrs Fairbridge's circumstances, and will review her case as soon as we have studied the details in full."

The Fairbridges have written to Local Government Minister Nick Raynsford complaining that many housing association rules were unfair.