Independent, The (London): `I woke with my ears feeling like they were on fire'

STEPHANIE ABBOTT is one of the mothers of children sent home recently from Littlehampton Community School suffering from migraines. The parents believe the symptoms suffered by 11 children could be linked to mm02's Tetra mast mounted on the town's police station.

However Mrs Abbot, who lives 500 yards from the mast, has herself suffered strange symptoms since the mast was switched on for testing three weeks ago.

"One of my sons, who is 11, was sent home from school with a migraine. The school phoned me to ask me to collect him," she said. "When I got there he was completely debilitated. He could hardly stand up. He was suffering from flashing lights and other symptoms. He has never suffered from headaches before.

"I remember thinking, `That's odd, I wonder if it's anything to do with the mast' but then I thought, `No, let's not get neurotic'.

"Then I had the most peculiar thing happen to me. I started waking in the night with my ears feeling like they were on fire. But not only were my ears burning but all the skin then dried up and started to peel off them. It got to the point where I had to go to the fridge and put ice cubes on them.

"The only thing I could liken it to was when my mother-in-law had radiotherapy and the area of skin affected burnt as a result of the treatment."

A spokesman for mm02 told The Independent that the mast in Littlehampton had been turned off on Tuesday afternoon, although this would be only a temporary measure.

He said: "It will need to be switched on at the point when we start testing for the Sussex police." He insisted there was no convincing evidence that Tetra had any adverse health effects.

Mrs Abbott and the other parents say they are not against a new communications system for the police, but that the technology needs to be safe beyond doubt.

"Yes, the police need a new system but you cannot play Russian roulette with the nation's health. These are not ordinary mobile phone masts." Mrs Abbott said.

"We have too often had examples where the Government have said things are safe only to find out years later that they might not be."