Snow misery: Your stories

Travellers are facing further misery as airports, roads and rail continue to be badly hit by snow in parts of the UK.

Overnight, temperatures fell as low as -20C in Braemar, Aberdeenshire and there are severe warnings of heavy snow for parts of central and eastern Scotland, Wales and north-west England.

Business groups have also warned that severe weather conditions are jeopardising the future of hundreds of small businesses across the country.

BBC News website readers have been sharing their stories of how the snow has affected their lives.

The effect on small businesses - Izabela Hailey, Chislehurst, Kent

I run an internet company selling wooden toys for children from 0 to 6. I turned my garage into a warehouse, which is located at the top of a hill.

A few Santa's helpers (on a school break) give Izabela a hand with her parcels

We are snowed in, I can't move the car and there've been no deliveries for a few days now.

We've had lots of snow, it's been growing 10cm every day. Now we have 50cm of snow.

Now is our busiest time of the year, I need to post ten parcels a day. As I couldn't go to the post office by car, I took out the toboggan and loaded it with parcels. Schools are closed, so me, my kids and a couple of kids across the road, who have a toboggan, all went to the post office.

When we arrived there, the postman wouldn't accept my parcels. They didn't have any space as they haven't passed on their earlier parcels. Today I've got another 20 parcels sitting in my house. A friend has promised to drive me to the main depot to drop them off.

It's been very frustrating. Our country has perfect roads and we can't use them. We knew from Saturday that it was going to snow yet our council has made no preparations. There's been no gritting on the roads whatsoever.

I am worried about the reputation of my company. I've been trading for only two years and if I get negative feedback from buyers that I use an unreliable delivery company, it would affect my business.

One good thing is that it hasn't snowed today. I am hoping and waiting for the snow to go away.

No care services - Joy Hope, near Amble, Northumberland

Joy took this photo a week ago after five inches of snow fell overnight

I live on the Northumberland coast and we have had relentless heavy day and night snowfall for a full week.

I am handicapped and alone with no care services and literally no-one I can call for help or assistance.

I have always been dependent on internet shopping, Tesco deliveries for my food and our local taxis.

There have been no post deliveries since last Thursday, and Tesco cancelled my grocery delivery this Tuesday and said they couldn't come until next week. To add to that none of our local taxi firms will send me a car as they tell me they'll only come out after the weather becomes more predictable and they wouldn't accept any future bookings from me either for the same reason.

So I am here at home with no food except some cans of beans and tuna, and nothing to feed my dogs except to share mine; which I can ration until Friday (plus my medication runs out on Friday too) - after that I simply don't know what I will do if conditions don't improve.

Even if I can get a taxi to the chemists or to the shops I cannot carry the grocery bags nor walk with my sticks if there is ice.

This has been a week of absolute utter hell for me, and I'm sure others in similar situations are also suffering.

Travel misery - Hazel Cowe, Isle of Mull, Scotland

We were travelling to Glasgow. Our train left Oban at 1810 and we were meant to be in Glasgow at around 2100. We arrived at Glasgow at 0200 after a trip that took an extra four hours.

Our train was stuck for around three hours in the middle of nowhere. There was no heating in the train and the temperature that night was -14C, so we were freezing. There was no buffet trolley. We couldn't really see, it was pitch-dark.

I can't praise the train staff enough, they were amazing, they were good company and kept us informed, but it was a bit scary, we just didn't know how long we were going to be stuck.

We were told the train stopped because it was severely cold, so the brakes froze and the train couldn't move and then lost power. The train wasn't able to move forwards or backwards.

They eventually got the train to crawl back into a station and put us on the sleeper train from London.

They gave us a cup of tea and took us to Glasgow and put us in taxis so we have just got to the hotel - five hours later, but it wasn't that bad - the staff kept us company and the passengers were friendly.

The plan was to spend tomorrow shopping and then catch the ferry home in the afternoon, but I think there are no trains back - so I don't know what we will do.

Stranded in London - Richard Vaughan, Stonegate, East Sussex

I have had to spent the last three nights in London and haven't been able to go home because of the snow.

I am staying at my parents' place, so it's fine, but I have no more clean clothes, I had to borrow stuff from friends.

Also, I miss my wife and my two children terribly. They are upset because they don't understand why they can't see me. I talk to them every night using Skype and read them stories.

I am a regular commuter from Stonegate railway station in East Sussex to London and I have to say that, although the snow has highlighted Southeastern's problems, it has been like this for the last five years. This is why a year ago I set up a Twitter feed where I communicate and re-send comments from other commuters.

It has gained momentum over the last few days because of the snow problems, as people are now grouping together and talking to MPs about the problems - they mainly complain about lack of communication with passengers whenever there are problems.