During 1963, around this time of the year, a big freeze hit the whole of the U.K.
The country was ill prepared for constant freezing temperatures, the schools were closed, there was a big disruption of services and a lot of work places closed due to not getting supplies and heating and plumbing problems.
There was widespread consequences for a lot of poor areas especially around the manufacturing sector. Britain closed because nothing reliable got through.
It was just as worse as the war, for a lot of working families.
My family, my father had a low paid job because of his army experiences in Burma, my mother was working in a sweet factory on poor wages. Me and my three brothers was of school age.
Both parents never got paid for just over two months as the big freeze bit, no work, no money, couldn't get money from anywhere.
We lived in a rented house which had luckily missed being bombed by the Luftwaffe. It was draughty, one fireplace but no coke deliveries. We had to go out and get free stuff like coke (coal) from depots, free food parcels, and always the fear that it would be so cold, hypothermia would happen, that is how cold it was at night in the bedroom.
We slept a few nights all of us in one room because it was about 20 degrees below.
We never had much but offal, fresh rotting vegetables, a chicken was a luxury, we just couldn't buy food. We went without. It wasn't a choice, it was the circumstances we found ourselves in. A lot of families suffered.
If you have never experienced being so cold, and hungry and there is no answer and you see your own family literally begging for food, clothing, coke (fuel) and everyone around you is in the same desperate situation. Just trying to survive.
Through my young life, I never knew that we were that poor or in poverty, I never thought that life could be so hard, because we lived in a good working class area, there were those who lived in actual squalor, not a penny, week to week, I counted myself lucky that my family could be anything but that worse.
There has so much done in this country to be proud of, that my generation decreased the levels of actual poverty and socially and economically our country became a place to be envied for its attraction to have a decent life.
However, I am in despair how in the last decade, things have happened that should be deplored and stopped. How can anyone, especially working people and disabled be asking for for food parcels to live?
It's a disgrace!
The OPs question should not have a definitive answer, because it is to huge to say which is worse.
Regardless of gender, background, income, ethnicity, climate, choices, taste and probably more reasons, a person will get some sort of endocrine condition, wether diabetes or hormonal problems, especially women.
Being poor is just another obstacle in the way, a hurdle to get over and if you are like me, the fight to be healthy, starts with self education, you may not get the schooling or have the intelligence, but finding out why something is happening should be enough of a push for discovery that even diagnosis, is just another small step in how to get your body healthy.
Even though we are all men and women, we are all different to how we can be healthier, diversity and lifestyle is paramount, not poverty.
It is well documented, that being in poverty or on a restrictive diet, or being rationed, like Britain in the last world war, you can live healthy on a little amount of good food.
Malnutrition or starvation is different.
I cannot stress how awful, being below the breadline is!
It is truly not something I would wish on anyone.
Going to bed hungry, wondering when you will eat again, seeing your parents apologise for not providing, no winter clothing, no hope, no sense of future, desperation, and of course, anxiety and depression.
So sorry for your loss
@hichamgsm.
