A LANCASHIRE radio personality has been forced to live in a caravan enduring freezing temperatures following a catastrophic flood at her home.

Alison Butterworth, 45, is the producer and co-presenter of BBC Radio Lancashire’s breakfast show.

Along with her husband Alan Riley, 50, they were returning from a 19-day Caribbean cruise which took in 15 islands, when they heard of the disaster which caused tens of thousands of pounds’ damage to their Whittle-le-Woods home.

She said: “Ten days ago we were aboard the world’s most luxurious ocean liner, The Queen Mary, enjoying scorching sun.

“This week we’re sleeping in a caravan at the front of our ruined home with temperatures of -15 degrees C.

Alison said they were delayed by last Tuesday’s snow at Brussels airport when they got the news. “A neighbour called and said the house was badly damaged,” she said.

“The flood caused by burst pipes originated in the loft and was so invasive that light switches on the ground floor have smouldered and melted causing havoc to the electrics.

“We’ve been told several walls will need to come down, ceilings removed and floors taken up.”

Alison is known to thousands of listeners in the county for her banter on the breakfast show with its previously long-standing former host, Tony Livesey, who left at the end of last year.

The couple and their two daughters, Hannah, 15 and 13-year-old Ruby, have been told it will be “months” until they can return home.

They will soon be temporarily housed at a property in Buckshaw Village.

Alison said: “The girls are with friends, who have been incredibly helpful and supportive, and we’ve been staying close to the house in a caravan, but we need to get the family together soon.”