Man endures cancer battle away from home as he waits for cladding work to begin

A homeowner who was evacuated from his flat a year ago due to dangerous cladding faces a battle with cancer from his temporary home as remediation work has not yet started.

- HOLLY BANCROFT

Josh Morris was moved out of his home in Skyline Chambers, Manchester, a year ago after serious safety defects were found in the building. Work to make the building safe has not yet started, and Mr Morris is living in a temporary flat 50 metres away.

Mr Morris, who has recently been diagnosed with skin cancer, is now having to look at going through treatment away from home.

He told The Independent: “The saddest bit for me is that I’ve just been diagnosed with cancer in the past few weeks and so I’m going to start going through that journey now. Luckily it’s not spread and it’s curable: that’s the good news. Bad news is chemo, radiotherapy, operation, which is not a nice place to be.

“It makes the situation extra prevalent for me because this is when I want to be in my own space, with my possessions, in my own bed. I’ve lost the liberty of having that. If this had been terminal then the probability is that I would never see Skyline Chambers again because I wouldn’t be able to live there again. I would be dead. That’s how long they are taking to do this.

“It would be so nice to spend that recovery, when I’m not feeling great, in my own place that I built up and surrounded by my things. That’s what’s hurting at the moment.”

Mr Morris was extremely proud when he got on the property ladder in 2013 with the purchase of his Skyline Chambers flat. But after the Grenfell fire in 2017, inspections of the building uncovered a number of safety problems including flammable insulation and timber on the external walls.