Disabled badge for frail Leslie

Leslie Ash is so frail after contracting a hospital bug that she has been given a disabled parking badge.

It was clearly visible on a £50,000 BMW X5 owned by her husband Lee Chapman as the couple went on a shopping trip.

The blue permit, handed out by Hammersmith and

Fulham Council, is given to applicants who have a

'permanent and substantial disability'.

The 44 - year- old actress had feared she would die last year after being struck down by MSSA, which is similar to the 'superbug' MRSA.

The disease ravaged her nervous system and left her temporarily paralysed. She was in the private Wellington Hospital for three months.

She now walks with the aid

of a stick, has had to use a wheelchair and has lost more than a stone in weight. Last night, a neighbour near the couple's £3million home in Fulham, West London, said: 'Leslie is so bad she hardly ever ventures outside any more.

'When she does she looks very sad and hobbles around like an old lady.'

The former Men Behaving Badly star was admitted to an NHS hospital last year with a collapsed lung and a broken rib after what she said was a fall during sex with her husband.

She was initially discharged from hospital but was quickly taken back in for a spine operation, which uncovered an abscess the size of a golf ball, the result of the hospital bug.

Former Leeds and Arsenal player Chapman, also 44, was arrested on suspicion of assault but was never charged.

Miss Ash had initially tried to ring for an ambulance after injuring herself but hung up before the call could be put through. But it was traced to her phone and police arrived at the same time as an ambulance.

She later told ITV's Tonight With Trevor McDonald: 'I fell out of bed and I knew I'd done something quite dramatic because I had problems with breathing. I went to call an ambulance and Lee was shocked and panicked.'

Miss Ash said the police 'assumed the worst'. She added: 'I told them the truth. They weren't quite happy with the explanation.'