After loads of calls to Orange fault department and a replacement phone, I've finally found someone at Orange who can fix the problem.
If you're asked to restore factory settings or remove everything that uses your email address and to setup email again from scratch - don't do it as that doesn't work!
With some Orange phones an email trial starts when you receive a new phone and can last up to 6 months. Regardless of what call plan you have when the email trial expires, it stops you using your mobile email.
Info relating to the email trial and whether your email is noted as expired or active is stored on the SIM card, not on the phone itself. Here's how you can fix it.
First text email to 247 (orange customers only)
A web link is sent back. Click on it and click on the 'subscribe to mobile' email link. If this works, you can fix it this way.
If the link doesn't work - and my'n didn't, Orange need to fix it manually. The Orange fault department could see on their system which email addresses were flagged as 'subscription expired' and passed the info to a technical team to manually fix it and update the SIM. They will contact you with info on when the fix will be made. This should then sort it.
Good luck!
