A woman says she is unable to power her "life saving" medical apparatus due to spiralling energy bills. 

Paula Roberts, from Flint, is reliant on a sleep apnoea machine to provide her with steady air pressure to help her breathe while she sleeps. 

The 59-year-old says she could die in her sleep if she chokes - something the CPAP machine prevents. 

Rhyl Journal:

But she is unable to use it as her energy bill sky rockets. 

"My electricity and gas bill has gone from £42 to over £90 this month - and it's going to go up again," she said. 

"It's making me ill with worry thinking about it. If I don't use my machine, at worst I'm unable to function properly during the day - at worst I could die. It's a life-saving machine but it's costing me £2 to use and I simply can't afford to pay my energy bill."

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Paula is unable to work due to a series of complex health issues and says a combination of Universal Credit and cost of living payments from the government won't even "scratch the surface". 

She said: "I don't think it's enough. The £150 disability payment will probably be gone, if we're being realistic, in a couple of weeks on the extra electricity."

And Paula is by no means alone. Some 900,000 disabled people live in fuel poverty and millions more are at risk of suffering similar hardship as a result of substantial energy price cap hikes, campaigners have warned.

READ MORE: How you could save yourself money when cooking this winter

Paula said: "I look at the meter every day and I'm so worried. I’m petrified of getting into debt and using my machine now will leave me overdrawn.

"It's like I'm choosing whether to eat or breathe."

Nuala Tooman, from Disability Action, said: “The fact disabled people are having to ration access to life saving kit shows they are facing spiralling costs.

“That means that as winter approaches disabled people will lose their lives. The cost of living emergency is pricing disabled people out of existence."

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