'My kids get bedbugs in their ears' - The family forced out of their home by an insect plague
27.10.2023 - 18:03
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
A family has been moved from their council flat due to a bedbug infestation - which they say became so bad they refused to go outside.
Mark Henderson and Chelsea Francis feared passing the insects to others so would stay holed up in the one-bed property in Fulham, south-west London. The couple - parents to Ewan, two, and Riley, four weeks - say Mark has been unable to work as a result.
This means they have been forced to live on £900-a-month benefits, they claim, as Chelsea has been declared unfit to work due to suffering with epilepsy. Hammersmith & Fulham council took action on October 19 and moved the family into a hotel while a new home is looked for.
READ MORE: Man, 22, killed after 'disturbance' with hunt underway to find attackers
READ MORE: CPS issues statement after coroner rules Yousef Makki was unlawfully killed
Handyman Mark, 27, said: “It was horrific having to live there. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. Me, my partner and two kids couldn't leave the house because we are covered in [bedbugs] and didn't want to pass them on.
“I don’t want people to think we’re dirty - the house was spotless. We’re clean people but the bedbugs were just everywhere."
The couple have been in the flat for seven years, they say. But the severity of the bedbug problem ramped up in the last year - causing so much stress they wanted out.
Mark said: “My kids get [bedbugs] in their ears - it’s absolutely disgusting. We couldn't go to out as a family.
"There was a funfair the other day that we had planned to go to, but we couldn't. The bedbugs are in their prams, in their clothes - they are even in the fridge. We just want to live our lives and be able to go outside. No one should have to go through this.”
Chelsea, 26, added: “The