The Big Build is on. BBC’s DIY SOS team has arrived in Telford to enable parents Leigh and Sue Cooper to adapt their home in Trench to be suitable to care for their son Matthew.
After more than a year and a half in Birmingham Children’s Hospital recovering from chemotherapy to treat brain and spinal cancer, 11 year old Matthew and his family have been living in rented accommodation.
A large amount of money has been raised by the local community and Wrockwardine Wood Junior School. Now that BBC’s DIY SOS is involved the profile and awareness of their home refurbishment has shot up and this has been supported by local businesses offering their help with things like bricklaying, building materials, electrical and landscaping services and many more donations of products and services to feed into the conversion.
Dave Myatt, Forest Fuels Marketing and Communications Manager said, “We first spotted a post about it on social media by Sarah Giles, from Passiflora, who’s designing the garden layout. We tracked her down through her website and left her a message offering our help. It took a while to make contact because she’s been so incredibly busy on this project but as soon as we did we were welcomed on board as part of the team.”
Forest Fuels are providing premium grade wood chip which will finish off the planted areas with sustainable and biodegradable mulch.
Transport Manager, Bob Osborne visited the site to check access arrangements and plan delivery of the wood chip.
Bob said, “Access to the site is quite tight but whatever it takes, we’ll find a way to get however much wood chip is needed, in to the new garden to finish off the borders. Without giving anything away, it’s an amazing project and we’re really pleased to be part of it”.
BBC DIY SOS Researcher, Heather Lafferty said, “We’ve had an excellent response from people offering their help in the area, there’s just a few remaining materials that we could do with getting – a brick manufacturer or supplier would be excellent and businesses that supply furniture, soft furnishings, finishing touches and dressing details for the home. If you know of companies that can help with these then please ask them to email us right away at diysostelford@bbc.co.uk”.
Nick Knowles and the full DIY SOS team land in Telford for the Big Build on 28 February.
