A TODDLER with a rare lung disease and her single parent mother are being forced to live in hospital because the council is unable to provide them with a suitable home to cope with her condition.

Georgina Farmer’s three-year-old daughter Sophie has been marooned in the Padua children’s ward at Ashford's William Harvey Hospital for the past nine weeks, with her mother sleeping at her bedside.

This is despite medical staff saying Sophie is now well enough to leave hospital and cope at home.

Following a Christmas cold the youngster became increasingly ill, culminating in her spending 11 days on a ventilator in a London hospital.

Unable to breath properly, she had spells in intensive care at the Royal Brompton lung and heart hospital before consultants finally diagnosed bronchiectasis – a condition that damages the lungs and only strikes two or three patients a year in Britain.

Despite needing oxygen to be available 24 hours a day she has now been stabilised.

Her former nursery teacher mother has been trained to administer the physiotherapy which Sophie needs around the clock to make her cough and clear her lungs.

Bright, brave and bubbly, Sophie is known as Princess by ward nurses and doctors at the William Harvey.

Accompanied by her life-saving oxygen cylinder, Sophie and her mum regularly leave the hospital to go for walks around Willesborough or lunch in the nearby Tesco store.

Her mother said: “Although she finds it hard to accept, she is just brilliant and amazes the staff. But we are desperate to get away and cannot return to my mother’s home in Kennington as it is unsuitable.

“Sophie is very sociable and all the time we are in the hospital there is the danger of her picking up infection from other sick children that could be fatal, so we go out with permission whenever possible.”

Ms Farmer has been on Ashford council’s housing waiting list since her daughter was born. Now with support from both her GP and hospital consultant she has maximum points.

“Family and friends have been great but we do have special needs like ground floor accommodation and need to be within easy reach of the hospital to deal with the emergencies Sophie has.

“All they have been able to offer so far is bed and breakfast accommodation as a homeless family and that is clearly not suitable, so we are stuck.”

Ashford council's head of housing, Tracey Kerly, said they were concerned about Ms Farmer’s housing position and had every sympathy with her.

She said: “We have been working hard to try to resolve the situation since being informed of her change of circumstances.

Having received the detailed information regarding her child’s health and needs we have been able to reassess her application which has been identified as a significant priority.

“Our choice-based lettings process operates fortnightly. The information confirming the requirements of Ms Farmer and her daughter came only four weeks ago allowing only two allocations of properties between then and now.

“We currently have a number of pressing demands on the limited number of suitable available properties but remain positive that a solution can be found and that Ms Farmer and her daughter will be suitably housed very soon.”

Firefighters from Ashford's White Watch, led by Kerry Mitchell, have pledged to help the family by raising the £329 needed for a new large buggy capable of carrying Sophie’s oxygen equipment that she needs when undertaking outings with her mother.