A disabled mum living in a rat-infested house may have found a solution after a Sutton pest controller offered to help for free.

Last week, the Sutton Guardian told the story of Ellissa Hawkins, 33, who has been desperately trying to be re-housed after living in a rat-infested council house in St Agatha’s Grove, Carshalton, for the past seven years.

After reading about Miss Hawkins’ plight, Mark Atkinson, 50, an exterminator from Sutton, offered to help the mum-of-two get rid of the pests.

He said: “It’s not right for a disabled mum to be living like that. I know what a rat infestation can do to your life and usually my customers have landlords who deal with the problem. But no one is looking after Miss Hawkins so I decided to help her.”

The damage caused by the vermin at the Sutton Housing Partnership property where Miss Hawkins lives meant she had no heating during part of the winter and no electricity for a while.

However, Mr Atkinson promised to try to get rid of the vermin without using poison.

He said: “The way I do it, I don’t use any poison, so it won’t put her boys at risk.”

Miss Hawkins said the council recently tried to use poison to kill the rats, but it did not work.

She said: “They put poison everywhere, but the rats are still there. But I’m really glad someone is now coming to have a look and try to kill them without the poison.”

The 33-year-old mother of Robert, eight, and Joshua, three, had seen her eldest spend four days in hospital recently after his asthma was exacerbated by the rats’ presence.

She told the Guardian last week: “It’s been a constant problem. We go to sleep and they are everywhere. We can hear them in the kitchen and the hallway. No one should have to live like this.”

Miss Hawkins also suffers from osteoarthritis, a condition that affects the joints and causes pain that can restrict movement.

She said: “I’m disabled and have to care for my two young boys.

“Living in a house infested with rats doesn’t help – it’s very stressful.”

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