Old soldier Joseph Taylor told today how he faces a six-month wait until his next bath.

The 84-year-old amputee is stuck on a waiting list to get his bathroom adapted.

He asked for help from Bradford Council after he had his right leg amputated. But social services chiefs have warned him they operate a priority list and it could be at least six months before his case is even assessed.

Since he was discharged from hospital two months ago, Mr Taylor - who has sight in only one eye and suffers from angina - is teaching himself to walk again with an artificial limb. But he finds it impossible to get in and out his bath unaided.

In desperation and anger after being told of the delay, he said he spent hours painstakingly writing a letter of his plight to the Telegraph & Argus.

"I live on my own and my children and grandchildren live a long way off," said Mr Taylor, of Undercliffe, Bradford.

"I'm 84 years of age - nearly 85 - and I suffer with angina, as well as being partially-sighted, as I only have one eye.

"I've now had to have my right leg amputated and I've put in for my bath to be altered so that I can get in and out, as I've not been able to take a proper bath for more than two months now. I'm only able to wash myself down.

"My bath only needs some rungs attached to it so that I can scramble up and down and lower myself up and down easily."

Mr Taylor says he is angry that social services have not been able to provide help sooner.

"I am condemned to at least another six months without a proper bath and I feel in this day and age it is a disgrace," said Mr Taylor, a textile-mill manager before he retired. He was widowed when his wife, Doris, died eight years ago.

A father-of-two and granddad-of-four, he chose to move back to his Council flat, which is part of a complex which has its own warden, because he likes to be independent.

"I've got good neighbours here and I wanted to see if I could manage on my own," he said.

"If I needed someone to come in and help my with cooking or cleaning I wouldn't mind paying, but not for something like this."

The letter he received from Bradford Council's occupational-therapy section says: "Although we have prioritised your request in line with council policy, we feel that you should be aware that it could be six months or more before we are able to see you."

And in a statement to the T&A, a Council spokesman added: "We sympathise with Mr Taylor's situation but we receive more than 6,000 referrals each year and as a result we do have to ask people to wait before they can be fully assessed by an occupational therapist.

"The general waiting period can vary throughout the year, but we do prioritise the referrals so the most urgent receive attention first.

"We will keep Mr Taylor's application under review and if his circumstances change his priority will be reassessed."

Mr Taylor said: "Surely if you've had a leg off you must count as a priority, never mind waiting six months?

"I was so annoyed I felt I had to write to the Telegraph & Argus. It's very difficult for me to write because of my eyesight and it took hours to write the letter. But I was getting more and more angry as I went on."

He served six years with the Army, working to protect convoys heading out of Scotland.

The Royal Artillery man was stationed at Scapa Flow in the Orkneys, where colleagues died of TB and he remembers nights so cold that people grasping a railing would lose the skin off their hands.

Mr Taylor, who feels the welfare state has let him down, said: "I am one of seven in my family who went to war for this country."

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