A single father whose son was born with a one in a million genetic condition has claimed to have been let down by Epping Council and forced to live in a hospital for more than nine months.
Jack Cook’s one-year-old son Jaxon was born with rare disease, serine deficiency disorder, and it has had a life changing effect on both of their lives and requires constant specialist care.
Mr Cook has told GB News that his son's extremely rare condition means he is blind, suffers from painful muscle spasms, is fed by a nasogastric tube as he cannot swallow safely and he cannot pass stool unaided.
“It changed my life,” he said.
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“There was no sign of any work or anything going on from that point - I was a full-time carer for my son.”
Mr Cook has been in constant contact with Epping Forest District Council who he claims has “failed to provide us with safe and suitable housing”.
“We were placed in a freezing-cold studio flat with no space for medical equipment or an overnight carer, and later offered (another) unsuitable (place),” he said.
“After I won a Section 202 review proving the accommodation was inadequate, nothing changed.”
Jack Cook and his son Jaxon have been forced to live in Barnet Hospital
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Mr Cook claimed to have seen “other appropriate properties” available, but “we were never offered them”.
“Shockingly, I have now been removed from the housing register altogether, leaving us without any hope of being house,” he said.
“As a result, Jaxon and I have been forced to live in hospital for over nine months.”
While the temporary move to Barnet Hospital gives Jaxon the appropriate care he needs, Mr Cook says it has “exposed him to infection risk, harmed his development, and left us in an impossible emotional and psychological state”.
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Jack Cook has been in attendance at protests outside The Bell Hotel
| PAMr Cook, who has been a part of migrant demonstrations outside The Bell Hotel in Epping, said he has been “let down” by the council.
“People inside (the hotel) are getting housed like that, and I’ve seen videos of the meals they’re having,” he said.
“And I’m getting microwave meals in a hospital and my son’s open to infection and I’ve paid into the system and so has my family all of our lives.
“It makes me feel sick.”
On top of that, Mr Cook said he is battling with the likelihood that “I’m probably going to end up burying my own son before I die”.
“It just kills me that I’m wasting his life in a hospital when he should be doing everything,” he said.
“I should be taking him on days out and he should be developing… not stuck in a hospital.”
Mr Cook told The People’s Channel: “How can a council not have the compassion to see that you’ve got a child that is already suffering so much in life… to then neglect the care and (offer) the right accommodation… for him to thrive”.
“I don’t understand how any human being, let alone a council, can do that,” he added.
“They’re meant to be there to safeguard us and protect the community and they’re doing the opposite.”
As a single father, Mr Cook believes there is “systemic sexism” at play.
“I do feel like as a man… I would probably be housed if I was a mother,” he said.
Mr Cook said that he has written to politicians, both councillors and MPs, to help him with the situation.
He said that while he’s sitting inside a hospital, the Government is “housing people who haven’t given to the community”.
And while he has been protesting, he admitted that he was “supportive of people” in developing countries who have come here to find a better life.
“But, look after your own people first, that’s all I have to say,” Mr Cook said.
The father told GB News: "Every day, I do everything in my power to keep him safe, comfortable, and loved".
He added that it was now his "life's purpose" to look after his son and that "I have been forced to fight battles no parent should ever have to face".
GB News has contacted Epping Forest District Council for comment.
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