DIY SOS

Amanda, mother of four and wife to local builder Vic, was training on her bicycle for an iron man when her brakes failed on Bury Hill, West Sussex. Travelling at 40 mph, she lost control and smashed into asignpost which catapulted her into bushes. The enormous impact meant Amanda broke 11 bones, punctured a lung and snapped her collarbone and her back. In vast pain, Amanda lay there motionless and described the sensation 'like my spinal fluid was leaking from my body'. It was two hours before Amanda was found by another cyclist. On arrival at A&E, she was told that she had been left paralysed. That evening, a national newspaper featured her selfie from the hospital with a beaming smile advising friends: 'I don't want to make anyone sad or upset but I'm not going to walk again', and she was determined to continue to compete as a para-athlete.

With husband Vic now tending to the four children, Amanda spent the next six months at Stoke Mandeville spinal unit. Even during her darkest days at the unit, she would help to feed other patients to keep busy and to remind herself that - in her mind - it could have been worse for her. After two gruelling 12-hour back operations, she returned home in a wheelchair. Her home was now unsuitable, so that is where the DIY SOS volunteers come to the family's rescue.

On 22 March 2017, 35-year-old PC Kris was returning from a ceremony to honour officers who deal with public order issues where he was awarded for his exceptional work as a police liaison officer in the Metropolitan Police. What should have been a happy day shortly turned to horror as Kris became a victim of the terrorist attack on Westminster Bridge in London. The horrific attack left five people dead, including police officer Keith Palmer and many more with very serious injuries including Kris. Kris was with two colleagues crossing the bridge when he was suddenly mowed down by the terrorist in his speeding car. Kris took the brunt of the collision. It left him with two broken legs, numerous head injuries, a lacerated elbow, a damaged left shoulder, sternum and tragically a damaged spinal cord which has left him wheelchair-bound. His north London home is now inaccessible, so that is where the DIY SOS volunteers come in, to help this injured police officer get home to his loving family.

In West Bromwich, Crystal Chambers, a mother of two young children, was given the devastating news that she had advanced stomach cancer, which had spread to her spine. Tragically, Crystal passed away a few weeks later, aged 32. Her children, eight-year-old Deago and four-year-old Ameira, were left potentially without a home as well as a mother. It was therefore left to Crystal's mother Sandra and 19-year-old brother Ziggy to take the children into their tiny two-bedroom home. This may be one of the smallest houses DIY SOS has taken on, but this small house offers up big challenges to the team. With a family stuck in a tiny home, unable to deal with their grief, the team and generous West Bromwich volunteers step in to drastically improve this family's home and guarantee that Sandra can keep the family together.

This week, Nick Knowles's DIY SOS team, the flamboyant designer Laurence Llewelyn Bowen and volunteers pitch up in Avening, in the idyllic Cotswolds, to help project manager Ben, whose life was changed in a split second by a freak accident on holiday.