Teams of volunteers from our Morris Property, Joinery and Site Machinery businesses answered a TV appeal recently to take part in a life-changing project to help a father and daughter transform their Shropshire home. The story of the appeal for the programme DIY SOS is due to appear on BBC One at 8pm this Thursday 9thJune.
We donated generators, lighting towers, pumps and the skills of a labourer and two carpenters to help give widower Joe Grafton and daughter Lucy, aged seven, a dream house at Hopesay near Craven Arms.
Joe’s story is heart rending as he lost his wife Jessica, who was also mother to Lucy, from leukaemia in 2014 at the age of just 39. Joe, a firefighter, also then developed health issues after he was injured in a road accident at work. Friends wrote to the BBC to nominate him as a worthy candidate to benefit from a DIY SOS renovation.
It was a fantastic community effort for such a deserving family. There was a great spirit and we felt proud and humbled to be part of something that meant so much to Joe and his daughter Lucy. It just goes to show what can be accomplished when people come together with a common purpose to help make things happen.
The renovation work on his cottage stalled last year when there were problems with the property and Joe and Lucy lived for months in a caravan on site before the programme came to the rescue.
