Spiralling costs are forcing more people to seek help in Blackpool, a coastal town with inner city problems where more die than are born
For James Scott, 'getting through' means eating practically nothing
James has worked his entire life as a shop assistant in Fife. He is retired now. He was forced to come to Blackpool to find some people to whom he had lent money. "I have my porridge in the morning which I use on the cooker, that still only costs a penny so that hasn't changed. If I'm heating something up in the oven, if it cost 6p before it might cost me 8p, maybe 9p now so that's not been a big change really, but it's just the heating, just having my central heating on was an absolutely massive increase."James is switching off his gas permanently. It is a grim choice between eating or heating.
Playing pool with her friend is Krystina Maher-Henry. The 25-year-old single mother is battling drink and alcohol addiction.Krystina Maher-Henry says she is running out of optionsLast Christmas she had a breakdown and reached crisis point. "Literally, I was on death's door, I was underweight, I was at a loss, I couldn't function," she says.
We are talking on a warm, sunny afternoon but she insisted on wearing a thick winter coat because she was worried her arms were too skinny for our TV interview.The sense of community she felt when she was younger is no longer there.That adds to the isolation and almost certainly causes her anxiety, which adds to her mental health problems - something that cannot be addressed by mental health services for months, possibly years.
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