A 16-year-old boy with leukaemia is living in a cold, converted shed in the garden of his family home in Dublin because his family cannot afford to renovate their house to make it wheelchair accessible.
Michael Jenkins was diagnosed with cancer three years ago and he now also has septic arthritis and avascular necrosis - a disease resulting from the loss of blood supply to his bones which has caused his bones to collapse. As a result he is confined to a wheelchair.
His mother, Maureen, said she had been offered a grant of €20,300 by Dublin City Council to make the family home in Ashtown wheelchair accessible but three builders quoted her between €70,000 and €80,000 to do the job. The family could not afford to come up with the balance.
She explained that in the interim they got somebody to link two sheds in the back garden - the coal shed and the garden shed - and to renovate them to provide an accessible bedroom and a toilet and shower for her son. But the room was very cold, she said, and the family's heating bills were now enormous.
Ms Jenkins said that one morning she found her son "shivering" in his bed at 6.30am. He is still on chemotherapy.
She pointed out that by minding her child at home she was saving the State a fortune yet the Government could not give her something back by providing sufficient funds to make her home wheelchair accessible.
"I'm not looking for much really. I want what I think every sick child in Ireland should be entitled to," she said.
"I want my child brought back into my family home, not in a shed," she added.
"I'm just so cross really with the whole situation and it needs to be changed not just for my child but for all others.
"It's a crying shame that I have to go and do this. I shouldn't have to do this fighting. It should be there," she continued.
Ms Jenkins, whose plight was raised on RTÉ's Morning Irelandyesterday, said several politicians called to her door before the recent election and she showed them the shed her son was living in. They all took her name and phone number and said they would get back to her. "I haven't received one phone call yet," she said.
She has also been on to the office of the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, and the Minister for Health, Mary Harney, a number times.
"My child shouldn't be in a shed. Nobody should have to live in a shed, especially not a sick child like this," she stressed.
Her husband normally sleeps on a couch in the shed beside Michael.
The local school attended by Michael - St Declan's College on Nephin Road in Cabra - and its staff have already raised up to €16,000 to help with the renovations and the Jenkins family is very grateful. Anyone else who would like to assist can make a donation through any Permanent TSB branch to account number 10986858, sort code number 990658.