MY mother used to despair of me as she tried to find her way into my bedroom amid the piles of books, records and magazines.

"You're a hoarder," is a phrase I must have heard on an almost daily basis - and still do!

But having seen The World of Compulsive Hoarders on Channel Four last night, I can confidently say that I am more a collector than a hoarder.

It would be all to easy to dismiss the four people featured in this documentary as messy slobs, seeing their homes filled from floor to ceiling with accumulated rubbish.

But in reality, and partly because of the way the programme was filmed, you could not feel but genuine sorrow for their plight.

Hoarding to this degree is a sickness. It is psychologically impossible for sufferers to throw anything away and as a result their lives are completely blighted.

Once you got over the horror of seeing packets of waste, half empty food cartons and general rubbish which made their living rooms more like a landfill site, you could not help but wonder what sort of quality of life these poor people must have - not to mention their neighbours.

TV is often accused of being voyeuristic and at times this was unpleasant viewing. But it did try to explain the reasons behind compulsive hoarders.

I think I'd best go and tidy the spare room!