AN MP is taking up the case of a woman who will have to wait between six and nine months for an operation on a prolapsed disc.

Noreen Johnson, 51, is in so much pain that she spends much of her time lying on the sitting room floor of her Guisborough home to ease her discomfort.

Mr Johnson said: "I was told I was an urgent case.''

Glynis Peat, clinical manager for orthopaedics at James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough, said staff were looking to help Mrs Johnson as soon as they could.

She said: "Our waiting times for spinal surgery are not what we would want and we are working hard to reduce the time people are having to wait for operations.''

But Ashok Kumar, MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, said he would urge Simon Pleydell, chief executive of the South Tees Hospitals Trust, to bring Mrs Johnson's operation forward.

He said: "I am very distressed to hear about her problems."