A mum-of-three was baffled when she began feeling unwell over the course of five months before making a shocking discovery about one of her household appliances
A mother and grandmother has been left with serious health complications after doctors discovered a household appliance was slowly poisoning her.
Tracey Condron, an active 43-year-old, slowly began feeling dizzy and confused over the space of five months. But after a visit to the doctor, she felt she was “going insane” as they struggled to pinpoint what was wrong with her.
Tracey, from Rainford, East London, thought she was losing her mind. “I genuinely just thought I’m going insane,” she told the Mirror. “I changed as a person. Even at work, I was being asked, What is going on with you? I thought I was just losing my want to live, to be honest.”
READ MORE: NHS alert says contact your GP over symptom that ‘could be cancer’
But soon it became dangerously clear what was wrong after she was rushed to hospital on January 8 when she suffered a seizure at home in her bedroom – where her boiler is housed.
Doctors found the mother-of-three had dangerous levels of carbon monoxide in her bloodstream, and sent investigators to check her boiler.
A Cadent Gas engineer was called out, who immediately told the siblings to leave the property after being “mortified”, says Shelina. The gas was turned off, and the engineer confirmed there was a leak around the meter and the boiler.
But the damage was done for Tracey, who says her life has changed dramatically. After several seizures in the same night, she fractured her spine and now has to wear a back brace.
She’s also on a string of daily medications due to heart failure. “It was out of the frying pan into the fire, so to speak, because even though I knew what was going on now, it was a whole other struggle. I’ve been in and out of hospital ever since,” Tracey added.
“There was a lot of anger to find out what it was, because the landlord clearly hasn’t been doing any of the safety checks in the last five years that he should have been doing. All could have been avoided.”
The carbon monoxide alarm that was inside the home wasn’t working, according to Tracey.
She is still living in the same property where she almost died and continues to pay her landlord her monthly rent. He is denying any wrongdoing, they claim, and has reportedly told his solicitor that Tracey denied access to the property when he attempted to arrange gas safety checks over the past five years.
Tracey says that since moving in in 2014, the boiler has only undergone a safety check once or twice. She says the leak was caused in April 2024 after faulty work on the boiler flue.
“As crazy as it sounds, I’m glad I didn’t have to leave the property as I’ve lived here for 10 years,” she explained. “There was comfort in not being kicked out but being ignored…
“He’s been out of the country twice; he’s just living his life. He had a face to face conversation with me while I was strapped into my backbrace, sat there with my boxes of medication and he sat there and said ‘I’m so sorry I’m going to sort this out’ and I thought that would have been an agreement with some sort of settlement but no.”
Tracey lost both of her jobs as she is now unfit to work. “I feel like the carpet has been pulled out from under my feet. I am not a sickly person; I am very able, and now, I feel like it’s aged me about 10 years. I’m very happy I pulled through, of course, but my life is not what it was, far from it.”
Tracey now lives with paranoia that something could go wrong again and carries a carbon monoxide detector with her around the house.
Documenting her recovery, she has started a TikTok page – @condroncarbonmonoxidepoisoning – where she has warned others about the dangers of carbon monoxide, while the family has set up a GoFundMe page in a bid to recover financial aid.
If you think a gas appliance is leaking carbon monoxide, call the free National Gas Helpline immediately on 0800 111 999. Call the NHS on 111 if you think you have carbon monoxide poisoning.
READ MORE: Debenhams drops £70 makeup box to £17 and it ‘makes any bedroom look amazing’