A DYING father who faced losing his children to social services has had a last-minute reprieve after his eldest son moved back home to help.

Single parent James Gibbons, 62, of Windermere Avenue, Huncoat, was told by social service bosses that he was too sick to look after 15-year-old son Carl and 13-year-old daughter Samantha.

He has emphysema and has spent time in Blackburn's Queen's Park Hospital but was told his younger children may be taken into care after their 25-year-old brother Michael left home.

Last week he was told that unless he could find someone over the age of 18 to care for the family round-the-clock then his children would be taken away.

Now Michael has agreed to move back into the family home on a "temporary basis" to "buy some time" for his dad to find appropriate care.

Mr Gibbons's emphysema was caused by double pneumonia and he also has arthritis and is epileptic. Due to extreme breathlessness he must have a constant supply of oxygen and can only get out of bed for minutes at a time.

Already Mr Gibbons has advertised for a live-in domestic home help but despite receiving a "handful" of calls has not secured any permanent assistance.

He said that support workers had now also offered to provide more regular visits to help care for him and his family, and Huncoat Labour party candidate Paul Gott had also offered his assistance in finding help.

Mr Gibbons said: "Things have started to move for us since the story appeared in the Lancashire Evening Telegraph.

"Michael has offered to help and although it is only on a short-term basis it at least gives us some time to find help and keep the family together.

"Lots of people have offered us help and Mr Gott came to see me to see what he could do to find us some support. He chatted with me for a couple of hours and seemed to really understand how important it was for us to stay together as a family.

"So although things have not been resolved permanently I do feel like progress is being made slowly.

"I am going to continue to look for someone to move in with us so we can stay together and wondered if in looking for help for ourselves we may be able to help someone else by providing them with a home. At least now we have some time."