Up until December 4, Carmelina Borg was an independent and active 82-year-old woman who went on her daily walks in Sliema and even went for morning swims in the summer.

But an incident that day put a stop to that and Carmelina now fears venturing outside her apartment in High Street, Sliema.

As she made her way to the hairdresser that morning, she tripped over an uneven, cobbled pavement, a few metres up the road from her home, fracturing her left hip.

The trip led to more than a month of pain and rehabilitation, and she now has to use a Zimmer frame to walk.

The elderly woman also missed out on a planned trip to London to visit her youngest daughter over Christmas.

But while her hip is slowly healing, Carmelina lives in fear of falling again.

“I’m afraid. I don’t want to fall again. It was so painful. I’m still doing physiotherapy. All this has cost me and my children lots of money – medical bills and the loss of my paid flight to London – and I live on a pension,” she says, sitting at her home.

After spending 10 days in a private hospital and two weeks in a private care home undergoing physiotherapy and rehabilitation, Carmelina has not left her apartment except to attend medical appointments accompanied by her children.

A close-up of the High Street pavement.

Carmelina’s daughter Laura Vassallo, the eldest of her three children, reached out to Times of Malta to raise awareness about the dangerous state of the pavements in High Street and several other parts of Sliema.

“They are a health hazard. A pavement is there for people to walk on and not to trip on. My mother was a very active 82-year-old. Now she is no longer an active 82-year-old. We hope that she returns to the way she was because the fear is making her housebound. She is terrified of going out,” she says.

Carmelina’s story is not unique. Over the years many have spoken about the hazardous state of pavements around the island.

The dire need to repair Malta’s pavements was flagged recently in a report, compiled by the Faculty for Social Well-being, that laid out recommendations to address loneliness – that is impacting more than half the population.

Among its 100 diverse recommendations, the report flagged the need to further encourage people to leave the solitude of their homes by pedestrianising more areas in city and village centres and drawing up a national plan to fix pavements to allow people safe access to places where they can mingle.

Carmelina has not left her apartment except to attend medical appointments accompanied by her children. She now has to use a Zimmer frame to walk.