London, Thanasis Gavos

An elderly woman in Bury, near Manchester, England, who did not heed her relatives’ pleas to turn on the heating because she was afraid of the high household energy bill, has died at her home of severe hypothermia.

The case of 87-year-old Barbara Bolton held a public coroner’s hearing on Monday, following her death on January 5.

The 87-year-old was found by her grandson curled up on her freezing kitchen table, unable to speak, with a body temperature of 28 degrees Celsius, well below the normal temperature of 36.6 degrees. A body temperature below 35 degrees Celsius is considered hypothermia.

He was taken to a hospital in Berry where he died after a few weeks of pneumonia caused by the severe hypothermia.

During the hearing, the coroner stated that the deceased was “obsessed” with worrying about high energy bills.

Her son said that he talked to her every day and visited her often, without being able to convince her of the need to turn on the heating. Her family had bought her portable heaters, but she only turned them on when relatives visited her.

His mother, he said, was “old-school” and “stubborn,” working until she was 82 as a pharmacist’s assistant and rarely seeing a doctor in her life.

The coroner described Barbara as an “admirable” woman who worked until a very advanced age and wanted to be independent.

Although in this particular case the family of the 87-year-old assured her that she had no reason to worry about the cost of heating her home, many households in Britain are struggling to cope with the high cost of household energy consumption.

Aid organizations and economic think tanks have warned that families are being forced to choose between buying enough food and heating their homes amid continued cold temperatures and high inflation in the country.