Following the story in last week’s Courier about cuts threatening the home care service one reader contacted us to express her anger and tell us what the service means to her.

In February, the Department of Health and Social Care announced that it would be axing carers’ mileage expenses from home.

The Courier learned that this has caused a number of carers to quit and that more were planning to do so.

Tracy Stacey, 47, from Ballasalla, who relies on help from home care five days a week, told us: ’I’m really angry about this.

’Without them I’d be lost and I really think they should get their petrol expenses given back to them because it isn’t fair what the government is doing.’

A carer comes in for half an hour five days a week to help Tracy mainly with getting dressed: a back injury and a number of other medical conditions means that she struggles to bend. At just 47 Tracy is one of the youngest clients using the service.

She has had the same main carer, Vanny, for seven years and she said of her: ’She is amazing. I really value what she does for me. It means a lot to me.’

Tracy lives at home with no family close by - her mother lives in Port Erin - so her carer and the postman are sometimes the only people she sees during the day.

She means: ’I feel like Vanny is my best friend.’

And she adds: ’The carers do an amazing job. Give them their expenses back and leave them alone!’