Wet wipe showers and washing up liquid for shampoo: How it feels to live in hygiene poverty
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By Sarah Ingram
Last September, Chantel Graham made an appointment with her doctor.
Although only 38, she couldn’t understand why her memory had apparently stopped working; she would forget things, get confused and was scared that she had dementia.
The single mum-of-two from London remembers: ‘It was little things. I was locking myself out of my bank, forgetting passwords, or they would ask me ‘what’s your memorable word’ – and I didn’t have a clue at all.
‘I was so tired. My brain would just wipe. I would completely forget to see people I’d arranged to meet up with. I would forget whole conversations.’
After going through tests, it emerged that Chantel didn’t have a terrifying brain disease – the problem was, in fact, stress. The anxiety of struggling to pay the bills and feeding her kids had messed with her memory.
Chantel had been living in ‘survival mode’ since 2020 when Covid-19 forced her to go on unpaid leave from her job as cabin crew. She claimed benefits and scrimped and...
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