Goodworth Clatford resident Margaret Hunt, 88, was unable to call for help using her Lifeline alarm after the BT phone line went down for three weeks

Margaret Hunt suffered a fall in the kitchen of her bungalow in Barrow Hill, Goodworth Clatford, landing on the bin in the corner of the room and was unable to move.

She could not use the Lifeline alarm, which she wears around her neck, to call for help as the BT phone line had been cut off for two weeks by that point.

The 88-year-old, who has severe mobility problems due to arthritis and uses a zimmer frame, had to remain in the kitchen for several hours until her daughter found her.

“It was frightening,” Mrs Hunt said tearfully. “I was sat in a corner like like Little Jack Horner and I couldn’t move; I thought I was going to be there all night. I still get upset when I think about it.”

Mrs Hunt was alone in the bungalow because her husband, Fred, had been admitted to hospital a few days previously after becoming ill at home and – once again – she was unable to use the Lifeline alarm to call for help.

Her next-door neighbour, Claire Henderson, found her at the door in the dark that evening trying to call for help having struggled to manoeuvre herself to the front of the house.

Mrs Henderson said: “I came back from dropping my husband at a friend’s house and Margaret was calling out of the door. Her voice isn’t very loud, if I was in the house I wouldn’t have heard her. I went in and Fred was semi-conscious in bed.”

The nurse, whose husband Richard is also disabled following a stroke, then called the couple’s daughter and the paramedics.

“It was serendipitous that Claire came home when she did because I couldn’t do anything about it,” added Mrs Hunt, who has lived in the property for 44 years.

Mr Hunt, who is 91, was later admitted to hospital with pneumonia and has since died.

It was the first week of November that the phone line suddenly cut off and Mrs Henderson immediately reported the problem to BT.

She says she was initially told that they would need to get permission from Hampshire County Council to dig the road up but when she contacted the council was told that was not the case.

After relaying that to BT she was then told twice that they were waiting for traffic lights by which point the telephone had been cut off for over two weeks, leaving village residents reliant on mobile phones in an area with poor signal.

“My biggest concern,” said Mrs Henderson, “was that my husband is disabled and in an emergency we would be relying on a mobile phone when the signal isn’t very good.

“It makes you feel helpless and hopeless and we haven’t heard anything from BT since.”

Mrs Hunt is unable to use a mobile phone due to arthritis in her right hand. She also suffered another fall during the first week the phone line went down when her husband was still at home and he had to summon help from neighbours.

The phone line has finally now been repaired.

An Openreach spokesperson, said: “This was a very complex and difficult repair requiring a fix to two sections of underground cabling and clearing of multiple blockages. The first site visit to investigate the fault was on November 3.

“Engineers replaced around 170 metres of cabling after clearing blockages in the underground chamber. Further tests showed a second section of faulty underground cable, which also required underground blockage clearances before cable repair work could begin. This work was completed on November 21 to fully restore the service. This would have affected up to 20 households in the area.

“Engineers worked as quickly as possible to complete the repair work and we are very sorry to hear of the problems experienced while the engineering works were being carried out.”