DIY SOS

Tragedy has been a part of life for Caroline Blanchard and her children Reece and Paige. Caroline has twice had to make the heart-wrenching decision to turn off life support for people she loves, first in 2007 after her daughter Natasha suffered severe head injuries in an accident in their garage, and then four years later after husband Paul had a heart attack in their conservatory.

Now she, Reece and Paige have to live in the shadow of their grief: the garage and the conservatory where the two cruel tragedies occurred. But help is at hand. Nick Knowles and his band of volunteers, along with award-winning garden designer Arit Anderson, are on a mission to renovate the home, including demolishing the garage and conservatory so that Caroline can be free of the painful reminders and make a fresh start.

Nick Knowles, his trusty DIY SOS team and hundreds of kind volunteers renovate the home of three orphaned boys in Cornwall.

After 15 years of fostering 103 children, Stephen and Lynn Smedley were looking forward to their well-earned retirement together in Carbis Bay, Cornwall. However, in April 2017, their dream dramatically changed, when Carrie, their beloved 32-year-old daughter died. Since Carrie's death, life has been very tough for Carrie's three sons. They are grieving their mother's untimely death while sharing a small 10x12ft bedroom with a triple bunk bed. There is only one bathroom, and Lynn has been forced to do the washing and ironing in the wooden shed due to lack of space. Stephen cares for the boys while Lynn works 23 hours per week as a healthcare assistant. They are struggling, so they need the home reconfigured and enlarged to accommodate three growing, grieving boys. Now DIY SOS and their generous volunteers are stepping up to help.

The Sweet family in Weston-super-Mare are happy and truly inspirational in their close-knit community. Louisa (14), Max (11) and Harry (6) were born healthy and family life was good until Harry was diagnosed with a genetic condition called Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. He is significantly hypermobile and suffers terrible pain in his joints, unsettled sleep and chronic constipation as part of his condition. He is also being assessed for autism.

The family had been struggling with Harry's health issues for three years when, in 2017, after genetic testing, Louisa and Max were diagnosed with Friedreich's ataxia, a rare and life-limiting neurodegenerative condition for which there is currently no treatment or cure. It will see them become permanent full-time wheelchair users in their teens, and it may affect their speech, fine motor skills and vision. They also have enlarged hearts, spinal scoliosis and suffer fatigue as part of their condition, but like Harry they are children to be truly admired. Amazingly, Max, who is also being assessed for autism, has stated that if he dies he wants to donate his organs to save other children, but his mother Cat just can't face filling in the forms.

Cat can no longer lift the children in and out of the bath or carry them up the stairs. Louisa and Max only manage the stairs by carefully and painfully crawling on all fours, which takes considerable time and effort. Both of the boys are already part-time wheelchair users, and their tiny home will soon have to accommodate three wheelchairs.

All three children now struggle with basic normal life at home, unable to undertake simple tasks without help, and with Louisa rapidly losing her teenage independence instead of gaining it, despite the immense love and care from their inspirational parents Cat and Chris, DIY SOS and kind local volunteers are stepping up to help this truly deserving family.

Nick Knowles and the team head to Barnstaple in Devon to help Jan and Lucy, whose daily four-hour round trips to hospital for life-saving dialysis treatment for two of their daughters is taking a heavy toll on family life. Along with designer Laurence Llewelyn Bowen and hundreds of local volunteers, Nick and the crew extend their house to create a home dialysis centre, enabling the girls to be treated where they live and letting the whole family settle into a healthier and happier routine.

For the first time ever, the DIY SOS team head to Bangor in Northern Ireland, the childhood hometown of our build manager Mark Miller, to help the McCreight family.