Good people doing good things

No man is an island, entire of itself;
every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.

The sun may be shining, the  days may still be long enough for a cheeky sundowner in the pub beer garden after work, but, flick onto the BBC News App (other news providers are available) and you might be right in thinking “By ‘eck it’s grim out there”.

This morning’s offering, perused as I tried to think of something to write: scare-mongering about taxes rising again, Israel expanding operations in Gaza, somewhere where children are already starving to death, more deaths as Russia’s deadly drones strike Ukraine again, the vaccine-sceptic Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert Kennedy Jr has canned research into certain vaccines… Closer to home, in my own in-box, the monthly S&P PMI Index is showing activity falling for the seventh time in a row in July, with even residential work struggling to sustain activity numbers.

So, in the light of all this, allow me to turn your attention to something more wholesome, something that will put a bit of joy in your heart, a smile on your face, even if it does also add a tear to your eye and a lump to your throat.

I’m not yet so jaded and cynical that I don’t still get a tad excited when I spot someone I know on the telly. Because of this, my ears always prick up when I hear something’s coming up about construction or building, just in case. So, there I was, waiting for my lasagne to cook last week, BBC’s The One Show on in the background, when there was a piece on industry charity Band of Builders – on primetime BBC One, so hats off to the BoB media team for achieving that.

There in the background I spotted Gavin Crane, the charity CEO, a truly selfless individual who works hard every day to try and reach those in our industry who need vital help and support. He wasn’t just lurking about of course, he was getting stuck in, helping to make sure that the Toby’s Project – the charity’s biggest and most extensive project to date – did what it needed to do, with the help of the 150 tradesmen and women who volunteered their time, and, of course, the suppliers who donated the products needed. “Oh, look it’s Gavin. I know him” I told the room. Alas, apologies Gavin, but the only one who heard was the cat, and he wasn’t as impressed as I feel he should have been.

I don’t have the room here to cover the full story – our coverage of it is here – but basically, the team came together to finish the job started by electrician Shaun which was to adapt a ground-floor space in his Norfolk home into a sensory bedroom with smart tech for his 16-year-old son Toby, who has quadriplegic cerebral palsy and dystonia. Tragically, in a story only too common in this industry, Shaun took his own life before the project could be completed, so his widow Sarah reached out to the charity for help to complete Toby’s room.

It took them 12 days, during which time they not only completed the job at hand, but also managed to finish all the rest of the house and landscaped the front and back of the house.

When there’s so much noise around about Broken Britain, about people wanting to up-sticks and relocate to whatever island they have decided to holiday on, it’s really heartening to take a step back and remember that, out there, there are still good people doing good things for others in their time of need. If you can help the charity in any way with future projects, get involved: Band of Builders.

If you too, want to play Spot The Gavin, the iPlayer link is here for the next few weeks.