KATHLEEN CELASCHAI is obsessed with keeping her one-bedroom bungalow spotless, the pensioner dusts and mops despite being restricted by bone disease osteoporosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a progressive illness that makes her breathless and causes frequent chest infections.

So last week, when the houseproud widow came home to find her home wrecked by burglars, with clothes littering the floor and her chest of draws broken, her situation became all the more desperate.

She is now petrified of leaving her home and feels threatened by abusive notes being pushed through her letterbox.

Kathleen said: "They took all my jewellery. I was only gone for a little while and when I came back all my things were everywhere.

"I am so frightened, I can't sleep, what if they come back?"

Kathleen, unlike many elderly people, is lucky to have a family that love and care for her but as they live in the neighbouring borough of Barnet and she is stuck in Harrow, getting back and forth is virtually impossible.

The mother-of-three explained: "It has been three years I have been trying to move to Barnet. I have been up to the Civic Centre so many times and every time I come away with no answers.

"I was told by Harrow Council that I had been taken off the transfer list and Barnet Council said they cannot do anything until Harrow acts."

Council tenants must make bids when trying to move, but need to have a certain number of points to be considered a priority.

Clutching her folder of letters from doctors at the Royal Brompton Hospital who believe she is eligible to move, Kathleen, who has four grandchildren, feels isolated and frightened and is now unable to make the trip to the Civic Centre, in Station Road, after a recent fall knocked her unconscious.

She said: "I am still undergoing investigations for another illness and I don't know what is going on with that. I know I am going to get worse and I just want to be near my family.

"As I keep on getting ill, I need someone, I'm not supposed to do heavy work but I can't help it, I could never live in a dirty house."

Kathleen and her husband of 50 years moved to the bungalow seven years ago, but after his sudden death in 2001, Kathleen has suffered with depression and finds it difficult to feel comfortable in the lounge where he died.

"If I hadn't come home that day, he would have been all alone, no one would have found him - I don't want that for me," she said.

Harrow's housing department were unable to look into her case at the time of going to press, but leader of the council, Cllr Chris Mote, said: "We are looking into this on Mrs Celaschai's behalf and apologise for any mistake that may have been made."