A self-diagnosed radiation sufferer says she struggles to breathe if she is exposed to it and fears for her health as the rollout of 5G gets underway.

Rosi Gladwell, of Totnes, claims that she cannot fly, stay in hotels or visit pubs because WiFi is so widespread.

She also claims the impact of radiation leaves her feeling weak, short of breath and with pins and needles in her face.

Rosi said: “I’m actually quite frightened about the future.

“At the moment, I’ve managed to make myself safe by being fortunate enough to live in a house in the countryside where there are no measured electromagnetic frequencies.

“But if they introduce 5G then I don’t know what the future will bring. It’s a really scary issue.”

Since diagnosing herself with a sensitivity to electromagnetic fields (EMF), Rosi has spent hundreds of pounds on special clothes and equipment designed to protect her from radiation, including a £400 EMF sleeping bag woven with silver and copper.

Rosi, 70, wears the sleeping bag for the duration of the 30-hour ferry trips she makes with her husband to their home in the Spanish mountains.

She also has a special protective sheet that she wraps around her body at the local cinema and leggings and t-shirt where EMF levels are high.

Everywhere she goes, Rosi is armed with a £200 hand-held radiation detector to measure frequencies to assess if an area is safe for her to be in.

Rosi first self-diagnosed herself with EMF sensitivity six years ago.

Afterwards, she went home and immediately turned off the WiFi and cordless landline phones, which emit radiation, and with 10 minutes felt “completely different”.

She said: “Back then people would think of you as being weird if you said you suffered from EMF sensitivity, but I don’t think that’s the case now.”

Being sensitive to radiation limits what Rosi can do.

She said: “There’s no way I would go into a big town anymore because the signals are getting stronger.

“If I go to a cafe I try to sit outside and if we go out to dinner I take my meter with me and then I can decide which seats have the least radiation and sit there, because it varies so much in a room. If I am exposed for too long I have to come home and have two days with everything turned off and not watch TV.”

Rosi is a leading member of the Electromagnetic Field Awareness Totnes group, whose members regularly meet up to watch films and documentaries about the effects of radiation.

She said: “We have about 12 members who come to meetings, but there may be many more EMF-sensitive people in Totnes who feel so weak they can’t come. Scientists say four per cent of people worldwide are suffering from EMF sensitivity and that’s probably an underestimation.

“A lot of people now aren’t feeling very well, everyone feels exhausted and stressed out, and some of it is, in my view, down to the extent of radiation.”

Those who feel they may be suffering from EMF sensitivity and would like to join the Totnes group can email [email protected].