'LET ME TAKE MUM HOME'
Pensioner, 73, arrested for trying to remove mum, 97, from care home says ‘I was terrified, she’s not got long left’
A PENSIONER arrested for trying to remove her 97-year-old mum from a care home said she was "terrified" because she's not got "long left".
Ylenia Angeli, 73, had not been able to see mum Tina Thornborough for nine months before she "sprung" her from the home in Market Weighton, Yorkshire.
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Her ex-Coronation Street actress daughter filmed the moment Ylenia was arrested at a garden centre after wheeling her mum, who has dementia, from the care home before lockdown.
Leandra Ashton, 41, who played Saskia Larson on the ITV soap in 2016, filmed the harrowing ordeal as her gran sat helplessly in the family car.
Humberside Police said they responded to reports of an assault and Ylenia was subsequently "de-arrested".
Retired nurse Ylenia said: "I took my mum because I want to care for her myself.
FAMILY'S PLEA
"I want to be the one who feeds her, hugs her, puts my arms around her and everything else.
"She's 97 with not very long left and with the second lockdown imminent I was terrified about not being able to see her.
"If she's at home with me I can see her everyday and give her everything she needs.
"She has deteriorated to the point she needs an awful lot of care and I feel like I'm best-placed to give it to her.
I want to be the one who feeds her, hugs her, puts my arms around her and everything else
"I'm a trained nurse, I had my own care home so I know what I'm doing.
"I just want to plead with the social care system to please let me take my mum home."
In a touching exchange she filmed during Tuesday's incident, Leandra sobs as her mum is put in the police car, saying: “I’m not fine. It’s ridiculous, it’s my grandmother, we want to be with our grandmother.”
Mum Ylenia replies: “I love you, come here. Stay strong.”
The heartbreaking scenes have led to calls for a review of the Government’s policy on visits to elderly people in care homes.
Leandra, an actress and yoga teacher and told The Sun Online how they "sprung" her nan from the care home on the spur of the moment.
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Leandra, from York, said: "The lady opened the door at which point my mother used the flowers to barge her way in.
"She was just saying, 'Don't get in the way of me and my mother, let me get to my mother'.
"She just hugged her. Which was just heartbreaking. Then she turned around to see me outside, the care home were calling the police.
"At which point as my mum brought my nan round to have a look at me she just carried on wheeling her out, very quietly, very calmly, nobody stopped us and we just wheeled her.
'WE'VE SPRUNG NAN'
"I thought, "We've sprung Nan, we have got her out, we are not going to giver her back".
"We put her in the car, my mum had one car, I had another.
"We obviously hadn't planned this. If we had we would have got a bit further than the garden centre.
"We literally didn't know what the hell to do. We were like, we're on the run now with my 97-year-old nan.
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"It was totally spur of the moment. My mum has talked about it throughout lockdown and I said, mum, how the hell are we supposed to do that."
Police caught up with them at a nearby garden centre, where Ylenia was arrested.
Leandra added: ";They did it because my mum said, “The only way you are going to be able to take her back to the care home is if you arrest me".
“She just refused to let them take her back. So the police officer said, “Alright, I’m going to arrest you”.
“But he put the handcuffs on very loosely. He was actually very upset by the situation. It was not an easy situation for anyone."
It’s the most horrific amount of torture for everyone concerned.
Leandra Ashton, granddaughter
Ylenia was dearrested then released and her mother was returned to the care home.
Leandra's family only have power of attorney for her nan's finances, not her wellbeing.
Decisions about her nan's care have to be made between the family and the local authority.
Leandra has urged the local authority to allow her nan to come back home, and has written to her local MP and signed petitions demanding a change to the current rules.
She added: “If we were allowed to visit my nan every day we wouldn’t have done that.
'TIP OF THE ICEBERG'
“You are not allowed to visit at all. You’ve only got these window visits. It’s the most horrific amount of torture for everyone concerned.
"Our hope is something positive can come from this.
"If people can see the amount of destruction that is happening throughout society in so many different ways because of these rules that are being put in place to protect us and to save us, it’s insanity.
“It’s like we’ve lost all common sense and all rational self. We are the tip of the iceberg. There are thousands of families in the same situation as us."
Assistant Chief Constable Chris Noble, from Humberside Police, said officers responded to reports of an assault , adding: "The care home had also reported that a woman who they were legally responsible for had been taken from the home by her daughter.
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“Officers found both women along with a third woman nearby and informed them that they would need to return the lady to the home, as is their legal duty to do so.
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“Officers then returned the elderly lady to the home.”
He added that Ylenia was then “immediately unrestrained, de-arrested and allowed to return home with her daughter”.
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