Louise Medus, 40, of Cheltenham, was camping in the Cotswolds with the Woodcraft Folk youth group when her specialised chair broke on Monday.

An NHS engineer went to the site and took her chair away for repairs, leaving her with a manual chair that rendered her "totally immobilised".

The mother-of-two said: "It is absolutely appalling that the people who are supposed to care for you could leave you in such a state.

We apologise to the individual concerned for any distress and do understand that this is a very difficult situation NHS Wheelchair Assessment Centre

"Our group were on their annual camp and I was leader, but in a manual chair I'm totally immobilised, so I wasn't able to fulfil my duties and was reliant on other people to push me around.

"If somebody breaks their leg then an ambulance would come out to fix it but I was just left there. It's terrible."

Ms Medus, who was on the camping trip with 80 youngsters and leaders, was told it was not NHS policy to provide spare electric wheelchairs while repairs were being done.

A spokesperson for the NHS Wheelchair Assessment Centre said: "We apologise to the individual concerned for any distress this situation has caused her and do understand that this is a very difficult situation.

"We were unfortunately unable to offer this lady an exact replacement of her wheelchair because they are highly specialised pieces of equipment which are adjusted to suit the individual user.

"We do not, therefore, have spare replacement wheelchairs of this kind. The broken wheelchair will be assessed, repaired and returned as soon as possible."