by Jenni Horn

Pensioner Joseph Wyres has walked to the shop to buy a newspaper every day for the last 40 years.

When he set off one morning, little did he know his life would change dramatically, leaving the usually fit and active 70-year-old unable to look after himself.

Mr Wyres, of Ealing Close, Lordswood, was taking his usual route to his local newsagents when he tripped, on what he claims was an uneven path.

The grandfather slid across the icy pavement and was unable to get up. He lay there for almost an hour until a passer-by came to his rescue. By the time paramedics arrived, his body had fused to the ice.

He said: "I tried to get up three times but I just kept slipping. I gave up and don't mind admitting I was scared. I just put my hands together and prayed as I thought this is it, this is where and how I am going to die."

Mr Wyres suffered a broken hip, dislocated knee cap and a broken wrist. He spent the next week in hospital and had to have a metal plate fitted in his hip.

He is now unable to walk more than a few paces by unaided. He cannot climb stairs or bend down. He said the accident has completely changed his life.

He added: "I used to do all the cooking at home and thoroughly enjoyed it, and I used to love baking. Now I can't do any of it because I can't bend down to the oven.

"I can't get up the stairs so I've had to move my bed downstairs and I have got to learn to walk again. I have to rely on my wife and daughter to look after me. I have lost all my independence."

Mr Wyres is now calling on Medway Council to improve the pathway where he fell, just off Bromley Close, and to install additional street lighting.

A Medway Council spokesman, said: "The incident was reported to the council on Friday, 17 February. In response, a highways inspector called Mr Wyres' daughter and immediately visited Bromley Close the following Monday, February, 20, but found no loose parts or faults with the pathway there.

"When we do experience cold weather conditions, the council tries to keep all of Medway’s primary and secondary roads clear and although it cannot clear every pathway, all main pathways and town centres are gritted. There are also 400 salt bins around Medway which are re-filled for people to use."