Rothwell man says electricity allergy is making him a prisoner in his own home

A Rothwell man says he has become a prisoner in his own home after discovering he is allergic to electricity.

Bruno Berrick, 48, has coated his bungalow where he lives with his partner and three daughters in special paint designed to block out 5G and radio waves.

They keep electricity usage to an absolute minimum - leaving lights off in the evening, keeping the heating off, and never doing normal every-day activities like watching television.

He's now having to build a special low-tech shelter in the garden where he plans to spend the winter so the rest of the family can have the heating on.

His condition mirrors that of Chuck McGill, a high-flying lawyer in the Breaking Bad spin-off series Better Call Saul.

Speaking for just a few hurried minutes on the phone to avoid excruciating physical discomfort, Bruno explained he was a 'normal guy' until he began to suffer debilitating fatigue four years ago.

He also started experiencing burning sensations, 'popping' in his head, and underwent a dramatic five-stone weight loss.

The a former builder and greyhound trainer says it took him years to realise he was suffering from a rare and controversial condition called Electrosensitivity - also known as Electromagnetic hypersensitivity, Electrophobia, or Electromagnetic Field Intolerance Syndrome.

Reports suggest some four per cent of Brits claim to suffer from sensitivity to electromagnetic fields (EMF) but whether or not it is even a real thing is the topic of hot debate.

Some experts claim it's totally imagined but Bruno and partner Lisa Chambers, 34, say his condition is all too real.

He spent £200,000 travelling around the world the the USA and Germany, trying to find out what was wrong with him after becoming ill.

He lost five stone and went from being a hard worker and boxer who loved life to spending months stuck in bed without the energy to move.

He said: "All these people are saying 'they’re idiots' and all that but I’m a normal lad.

"I was a builder - I’m not one of these to go off on one.

"I was just your normal everyday bloke ,you know? I was a greyhound trainer - trained greyhounds for a living, I was working all day, I’ve got three little kids, I’m living proof of what it does to you.

"All these people on the TV and in the papers and saying 'they’re just 5G idiots' and all this but if you put me in front of somebody with a mobile phone or put electricity on you see what happens to me.

"Nobody can say it doesn’t affect you because I’m living proof."

He added: “I've been seriously ill for about four years - nobody could find out what it was. I went to Harley street doctors, they didn't have a clue - they called me ‘the mystery man.’

"I went everywhere, spent about £200,000 trying to find out what was wrong with me.

"I didn’t know what it was, we had the internet in the house, wi-fi, a smart TV, all of this and I went to bones - I was a 15 stone, big, powerful builder and I went to 10-and-a-half stone.

"I was like a bag of bones. I was in bed for six months with chronic fatigue but nobody knew what it was.

"I had a clicking and popping sensation in my head when there was electricity on, and a burning face when I went outside."

Eventually, he started to find answers in the American west coast city of Seattle where he tested positive for pesticide poisoning.

He said: "In 2016 I got poisoned by pesticides because I lived next to a field that they were spraying but nobody knew what it was.

"I ended up about a year and a half later having to go to America, Seattle in Washington and they found it in about two days. They sent a urine sample to Kansas and it came back and said I was full of pesticides.

"Basically, it stripped my immune system. It went down to nothing and I kept getting infection after infection and it's turned into this. Now, if I’m near a mobile phone I nearly collapse from the radiation from it."

Despite finding answers as to why he had suddenly started feeling different, Bruno didn't feel sure of what was wrong with him until he met Geoff Simmonds who also suffers from it.

Bruno said: "I went to a seminar in Brighton about a year ago and there was a man there who had the same problem as me and he did a seminar on it.

"A load of doctors from around the world came to this seminar and I thought ‘Jesus, that sounds like me.’

"Geoff told me you 'will not get better until you’re totally protected - away from wi-fi internet, mobile phones, everything."

Lisa added: "He sent us an EMF reader, he said go round the house and see where it gets the highest.

"We went upstairs into our little girl’s room and it was getting higher and higher and we pointed it out the window and there was a phone mast in direct view of our bedroom window."

Relieved to feel like they had identified the problem, but eager to solve it the couple moved to a caravan in a remote part of Rutland to escape.

Lisa said: "That was what was making him feel so bad so we decided to get out of that house, because there was no way he was trying to get better there, and we moved into a caravan down at his dads in the middle of the country where there’s nothing there.

"We were there for about six months and he started to really pick up. He started to gain some weight and he was able to play with the kids again which he didn’t do in the whole four years at all, he couldn’t even read a book or anything."

When the couple moved back they set their sights on their new home which has now been made secure for Bruno.

He said: "I've come here, put a stone and a half on - 20lb in four months. I can’t have the electric on: no lights, no heating, no TV, nothing.

"If I do, my eyes go black within ten minutes, my eyes sink into the back of my head and I look about 10 years older.

"When we used to live next to a phone tower and I was shaking physically and trembling inside.

"I’m in a house now that's painted with 5G protective paint - the whole house. I came here, I’ve had four great months.

"When I stay in this house I’m an absolutely normal man."

Despite being able to keep his symptoms at bay, Bruno is now trapped in his protected house.

Lisa said: "He cannot leave the house because people are walking around with phones all the time and within five minutes of him walking past them he will be seriously paralysed.

"It’s hard for people to get their head round it but when you’ve lived with it for four years it's absolute hell really. You know what it's like these days, it's technology crazy."

With winter on the way, the need to have the electricity on to keep the house warm has meant the family building a special protective retreat for Bruno in the garden.

Lisa said: "We’re having a building built in the garden for him because the darker nights are coming now we’ve got three kids and we can't put the heating on, we can’t put the lights on so he’s having a building, we’re getting that all protected for him and putting a wood burner in there and a snooker table so he’s got something to do because he can't watch TV and he’s read every book under the sun already."