FOR Mary-Jayne Allen the small button worn around her wrist is her lifeline.

The 26-year-old, who has cerebral palsy which affects her mobility, wears the panic button at all times to ensure that help can get to her if needed.

But the potential life saver needs to be connected to a phone line, which Miss Allen says she has been forced to live without since moving to her Kennington home in August, despite requesting the installation of a line more than four months ago from Sky.

Miss Allen said: “I live as independently as I can. I have cerebral palsy which means I pretty much need someone with me during the day.

“I have an alarm so if I fall at home and there is no carer I can call them. It does concern me. What would happen if I fell?

“It would be my only lifeline if I needed help in an emergency. I wouldn’t be able to live on my own without it.”

Miss Allen relies on a wheelchair and carers during the day to help her with every day activities such as washing and shopping.

She has been using a mobile phone since moving to keep in contact with her family.

She said: “It is really ridiculous it has taken months for something so simple.”

A Sky spokeswoman said the installation of the phone line relied on cabling that was due to be installed by BT Openreach.

She said: “We were very sorry that Miss Allen experienced delays with getting a phone line installed at her new property, and have apologised to her for the inconvenience caused. Recent poor weather and the festive period have delayed Openreach’s lead times for provisioning new lines.

“We are working with Openreach and the rest of the industry to see how we can help bring service times back to more acceptable levels.”

A BT spokesman said: “There does appear to have been some breakdown in communications on this order.

“There has needed to be an amount of additional works to install new ducting and cabling required to serve this premises.

“We will be urgently liaising with Sky to progress this further to enable Openreach to complete the installation as quickly as possible.”

Despite the company’s promises Miss Allen has decided to cancel her order from Sky and has ordered a phone line from Virgin.