Lancaster builder saves Christmas for city family

Sharon Grannell bought her new home from her landlord and took on a builder and decorator to do the refurbishment.

But after paying him she had to wait months for the work to be finished, and she said her home still “looked like a bomb site”.

After months of misery and after spending thousands of pounds, the Lancaster mum decided to post an appeal for help on a community app.

Distraught and desperate not to have a grim Christmas, Sharon posted her online appeal asking if someone could help sort out the mess she had been left with.

"I have had the misfortune of using a builder and decorator who advertised on the app,” she said in her online message. “I paid a lot of money for a completed job and was constantly let down.

"The work is unfinished and I now have damp under the painted plaster crack in ceilings with rubble and rubbish everywhere.

"I wish I had done my homework because after three months I have had no choice but to take legal action. My house is a mess. Christmas is cancelled and my son and I are having to live upstairs."

Mum-of-one Sharon said: ”I did not have a penny left to do the work and my house was a building site. It was so unsettling and I just didn’t know what was going to happen next.”

Sharon’s message prompted kind-hearted builder James Kelly to come forward and offer to get her home ready for Christmas.

Mr Kelly, who is the owner of building firm Quayside at Home, offered to do the work for free after he saw her message online.

Sharon’s plea brought back memories of his own childhood Christmases.

He said: "Growing up and watching my single mum struggle on her own, she always made Christmas really special for me and my brother.

"So, It really broke my heart to think of Sharon and her son spending Christmas in that house after spending all that money.

“As a business we always go the extra mile to help our clients and I just thought, you know what, I can make this right.

"In a world that's so hard, it's so important to ask for help. I'm glad Sharon did and I'm glad I could help save Christmas for her."

Mr Kelly added his thanks to all the other local traders who had assisted him in getting the work done for Sharon.

He said: “I am enormously grateful to painter and decorator Claude McMurtrie, electrician Phillip Greenhalgh and local businesses Huws & Grey who donated up to £200 of building materials, and Simon Ball, manager from Paintwell, who donated some of the painting supplies. It's a nice feeling when the community comes together to help one another."

Sharon said: “We are overwhelmed and it means the world to us. It is like being on the DIY SOS programme!”