A mother who suffers with severe illness has told of an 'awful few years' after being fined for not removing waste from her home.
Donna Weight, of Rotterdam Road in Lowestoft, was found guilty on Tuesday of failing to remove household and food waste from the premises after receiving an abatement notice from Waveney District Council (WDC) last year.
The 30-year-old was also found guilty of failing to prevent a recurrence of the waste accumulation and ordered to pay a fine and costs totalling £1,142.
But Miss Weight, who has three children and has lived at the house for six years, says the fine is just the tip of the iceberg following a series of health problems, surgeries and struggles with mental illness.
'It's been an awful few years,' she said. 'I had a hysterectomy in 2016 after losing three babies to miscarriage, which in itself brought on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
'Before that I had already been diagnosed with arthritis in my lower back, ovarian cancer and I've had several surgeries to remove cysts and blood clots from my ovaries.'
The abatement notice served on Miss Weight resulted from a visit to her home last May, when environmental health officers found an accumulation of waste.
Despite the notice requiring removal of the waste within seven days, it was not disposed of.
'The build-up of rubbish boiled down to the fact I had such difficulty in moving the bins,' added Miss Weight, who is unemployed and not currently permitted to look for work due to her condition.
'There were pains in my back, in my ovaries - it was completely debilitating. Some days I literally couldn't move.
'Friends and family have helped when they can but you don't want to have to rely on people.'
Miss Weight, whose partner recently moved in with his own three children, now faces the prospect of yet more surgery following the return of the cysts. She has asked for her ovaries to be removed but doctors say it is too dangerous to perform the procedure on someone so young.
A WDC spokesman said: 'We will always take action to prevent risks to public health and we hope this outcome will discourage Miss Weight from allowing waste to accumulate on her property in future.'
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