Yes, they are horribly expensive. Which is why I don't have one. Now if only you could get Equipment Necessary For Dealing With Life Threatening Allergies on the NHS then I could have one. (cue standard whine number one :-)

How do you cope? You can borrow ours if you like. I remember having one of those push along roller ones in the 80s.

I cope by taking medicine* for it and by taking simple precautions like being careful to stand in front of the hoover, not sleeping on the floor etc etc.

*It's not like a food allergy where you might go into anaphylactic shock and just drop dead. If I stop taking my medicine I wouldn't die instantly, I'd have a decline in lung-function-wossname over a matter of days and eventually it would be irreversible**.

**Er, based on the fact that it typically takes about 3 days - 1 week for the hospital to reverse it when my asthma gets bad.

Ooh, gosh, it sounds terribly melodramatic, doesn't it? It intimidated everyone who ever visited me in hospital way more than it intimidated me.

How do you cope with messy carpets? It'd drive me mad.

Oh, that. Dustpan and brush after the hoovering.

But I thought you said you didn't have a hoover.

No, I said I'd like a nice new hoover with the posh filter. I'd like a nice new one because my current one is rubbish not because I don't have one.

Ohh, my bad. Must actually read replies.