A mum-of-two today told of her festive season from hell.

Karen Pullinger, of Hellendoorn Road, Canvey, thought things could not get any worse when there was a flood in her home on Christmas Eve.

But that was only the beginning of a series of disasters for the family, which included:

Having to turn off a freezer full of food

A workman plunging through the garage roof

Electrical points having to be rewired

Being left without heating or hot water.

"Christmas and new year have just been a disaster," said Karen. "We must be jinxed."

The house-proud wife had planned a family Christmas dinner in her smart dinning room, but her plans were destroyed after she discovered a leak in the family's garage roof.

Water poured through the ceiling and onto some of the power points for the home.

Karen's husband, Mark, 35, called in a workman, but he fell through the roof while he was trying to fix the problem.

Another workman told Karen that lights from those power points affected would have to be rewired .

It meant she would have to turn off her freezer - even though it was full of food for Christmas - and disconnect the lights in the dining room.

Karen, 32, said: "We had to take down all the lights I had put up for Christmas dinner and rewire the main lights to other points so that we could see what we were eating.

"I had it all so carefully planned, we were to have a lovely dinner at 2pm and it was so disappointing. Nothing went as planned."

The family's bad luck continued. On New Year's Eve Mark woke up to find there was no hot water and no heating.

Karen said: "It has been terrible. I have a five-month-old daughter and we've had no heating or hot water since New Year.

"It has ruined New Year for us.

"I was hoping to have a nice dinner party to see in the millennium but on New Year's Eve I had to ring all the neighbours I had invited and tell them I couldn't have the party."

Mark telephoned British Gas to see if the company could solve the problem.

But, although someone went to their home on New Year's Eve, the engineer did not have the correct parts to fix the fault.

Mark said he had been told engineers would not be able to get hold of the vital parts until at least today or tomorrow.

The company has since provided the family with a fan heater but Karen, who has two daughters, five-month-old Megan and Emily, aged six, said: "It is a tiny heater and it is not enough to keep a three-bedroomed house warm and we still have no hot water."

A spokesman for British Gas today apologised to Mrs Pullinger for the delay.

He added: "This was caused by the extended holiday creating difficulties in obtaining and transporting the necessary spare parts.

"We have arranged for the parts to be delivered and fixed as soon as possible."

Picture, top: Catalogue of disasters - Karen and Mark Pullinger with their girls Emily and Megan after Christmas and new year were destroyed.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.