A YORK pensioner with chronic breathing difficulties has finally won a disabled parking badge - after a four-month "battle with bureaucracy".

Barbara Carder-Geddes, of Dringhouses, only has one lung, and cannot walk far without becoming breathless.

But it took the intervention of her local councillor, her MP and her finally her surgeon to convince council bosses she was entitled to a blue disability badge for her car.

In 2003 Mrs Carder-Geddes, 76, developed lung cancer and was admitted to hospital to have her right lung removed. Since then, she has become breathless when climbing stairs or walking short distances.

She applied to City of York Council for a blue badge - a nationwide initiative providing parking concession for people with disabilities - and on her application form wrote she could walk 200 yards.

However, her application was refused, even though Mrs Carder-Geddes gets breathless walking that far. She tried to tell the council that walking 200 yards would be physically possible, but very uncomfortable for her, but to no avail.

The Evening Press reported her situation in February this year, and since then Mrs Carder-Geddes has fought a long - and ultimately successful - campaign to obtain a badge.

She asked local councillor Ann Reid and MP Hugh Bayley to take up her cause, but the council remained adamant that their decision could not be appealed.

She said: "I thought filling the form in would be a formality, but they refused my request and said I had no right to appeal. I wrote back explaining why I thought their decision was wrong, but they were utterly intransigent.

"I went to Ann Reid, but she got the same reply, so I went to Hugh Bayley, and he got the same reply.

"Fortunately, I had an appointment with my surgeon, and he offered to write to them too. Finally, I got a letter back asking me to fill in a new form. This time I explained that 200 yards was too far for me to walk comfortably, and my application went through and I got my badge.

"It's given me a new lease of life. Instead of having to rely on my family to take me into town I can go myself. Now I can go in and totter from shop-to-shop, and if I buy anything heavy I can go and put it back in the car.

"It's been fantastic to get my independence back - and that's what this badge has given me."

Updated: 10:38 Thursday, July 28, 2005