52 Lives

Life #39

Request: Carpet and an oven/cooker

This week, 52 Lives would like to help a family from Worcester, UK – Lisa, Mark and their 6 week old baby daughter.

Mark is a self employed gardener and handyman, and Lisa is at home with their baby. Business has been slow, so money is very tight. They are getting by, but there is no extra money to pay for anything other than food and bills.

They recently moved into a council house, and scraped together furniture and things for their daughter from Freecycle.org. Unfortunately, the house has no insulation, no carpet and no oven/cooker.

They have been making do with a camping stove to make their meals, and have also been trying to find some second hand carpet for their freezing cold lounge room – without any success.

52 Lives would love to help make their home a bit warmer as the cold weather sets in and, if possible, help them with a proper oven. It really will change this family's life.

1. Carpet for their lounge room floor (7m by 4m).

Lisa would ideally like something dark and hardwearing but isn’t fussy - she would be thrilled with anything. Do you have any carpet you can donate to them? Or do you know a carpet shop willing to donate some? Or would you like to help them buy new carpet? The estimated cost would be up to about £200.

2. An oven/cooker

Do you have a second hand oven you would be willing to give them? Or do you know a kind business willing to donate one? Or can you help them buy one?

Please let us know if you can help.

A very kind lady, who wishes to remain anonymous, bought the family a brand new oven.

We also had donations totalling £155, which meant the family could afford to buy some carpet for their living room.

Thankyou to Richard, Claire, and all of the anonymous donors for helping to change this family's life for the better. The family are truly grateful and a bit overwhelmed by what you have all done for them.

A note from the family

We cannot thank you and everyone that donated enough. We appreciate it so much and are both amazed how kind people can be. I think it's a brilliant organisation you have going there!"

This is the carpet they were able to buy, to cover their freezing living room floor...they also had a proper home-cooked meal for the first time since moving in.