featured-image

A woman who was diagnosed with a life changing condition claims she was rejected for personal independent payment (PIP) because she told assessors she was able to get into a taxi. Gitanjali Gordon, 52, who lives in Blackpool, told i she applied for the benefit after she was diagnosed with achalasia , a rare incurable disorder of the food pipe within the oesophagus, which made it difficult for her to swallow food and drink. She says the diagnosis came about after she began suffering from intense pain and suffered seizure-like symptoms.

Ms Gordon then underwent a brain scan where a specialist told her that her nervous system was so badly damaged, that it was as “if she had been in a car crash.” “It was difficult to even swallow water and I was told my nervous system was affecting the muscles which were controlling my organs. I was in a lot of pain and would get symptoms that were like a waking seizure,” she said.



Across her 15-year career in healthcare, she has worked in voluntary roles for more than 15 years and worked as a nurse in operating theatres in Calcutta, India, before she came over to the UK to live in Blackpool in 2002. She says she worked throughout the pandemic as an apprentice associate nurse in London, but told i felt she had no choice but to leave after becoming ill with Covid and then suffering the seizure symptoms which led to her diagnosis. Ms Gordon says she was even forced to rely on a food bank when she didn’t receive her salary while ill and at.

Back to Health Page