A multiple sclerosis sufferer is devastated after finding out her care will be cut by half just two days before Christmas.

Sandra Hunter, of Great Bourton, near Banbury, is the latest victim of a series of cutbacks by Oxfordshire County Council's social services department, which is cutting £8.9m from its budget.

As reported in the Oxford Mail yesterday, wheelchair-bound MS sufferer Dr Andrew Baker, 46, of Oxford, won his battle to get his night care re-instated.

Mrs Hunter, who has had MS for 25 years and received care for six years, said: "It left me with the feeling that I was a burden -- like I was just too much trouble."

Mrs Hunter, 50, has been visited by a care worker for two one-hour sessions every day. That will now be cut to two 30-minute visits a day. A weekly shopping trip is being reduced to once a fortnight.

She said: "They've told me to eat frozen meals or shop on the Internet -- but I can't use a keyboard because of my tremors."

Mrs Hunter, who has raised more than £35,000 in five years for the local carers centre by helping to organise an annual golf tournament, said: "The anxiety of all this is distressing and is affecting me badly. There are so many things I can't do for myself and two half-hours a day are just not enough."

She has enlisted the help of Banbury MP Tony Baldry in her fight against the cut.

Social services spokesman Mike Biddulph said. "Our budget is being squeezed and this is another example of the pressure on our services. It is still possible that we can agree on something that both sides will be happy with."

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