A six-month wrangle over who should pay for a Down’s syndrome sufferer’s one-to-one care is wrecking his family’s life, says his devoted mum.

Maralyn Adey said the stress of waiting to find out who would pay for the extra support hours her 27-year-old son Kristian needed was making her ill.

Kristian, of Wrose, Shipley, who also has heart and lung defects and needs additional oxygen all day to keep him alive, had life-saving surgery on a brain abscess last year which changed his care needs.

A review was carried out and Social Services and Bradford and Airedale NHS’s Continuing Health Care Team agreed he needed more one-to-one support hours.

But since then no decision has been made on which organisation will pay for which bit of the additional care that is necessary to keep Kristian well and able to lead his life to the fullest.

Mrs Adey said: “They’re supposed to help carers, not make them ill. The stress is unbelievable. I’ve been making phone calls, sending correspondence, trying to find out what’s going on. I can only do as much as I can but I can’t continue like this – we need the one-to-one support that both the organisations have said he needs.

“It’s six months now since they made that decision – it’s not acceptable that they can’t sort out the funding. Everyone is agreed he needs it, they just can’t agree who’s going to pay for it and that’s wrecking us right now.

“It’s beyond me what’s going on. It’s making me ill, I’m under the doctor now. If Kristian doesn’t get that extra support soon he will not be able to do all the activities he’s doing now and wants to do.”

The official review recognises Kristian’s needs as “intense” and that he could become depressed or anxious without the extra one-to-one support. It also says without the proper management of his oxygen supply he could die.

At the moment Kristian has funding for three days’ care through Supported Lives but needs five, says the review.

In a joint statement NHS Airedale, Bradford and Leeds and Bradford Council Social Care said: “We are aware that this has been a period of uncertainty for the family but we can assure them that we are involved in a formal joint process to agree and commission a care package that meets the patient’s assessed needs, which we hope to complete in the very near future.

“In the meantime our priority remains to ensure the patient’s health and social care needs continue to be met in the safest and most appropriate way possible.”

In response, Mrs Adey said: “This period of uncertainty as they call it has taken an inordinate amount of time.”