Church, Community and DIY SoS “Bringing Dan home”

Deacon Kim Gabbatiss from Lancashire has been supporting a young family who are to be reunited thanks to the BBC’s DIY SoS Team.

Kim is Minister at Freckleton Methodist Church and a chaplain in the village where Dan’s family live. Daniel from the village had a life-saving operation to remove a brain tumour when he was 13, but it left him severely disabled and unable to return home.

Now 16, Dan has spent three years in the respiratory ward at a Manchester Hospital, can now come home thanks to an extension and adaptions to the bungalow the moved into recently.

For the past 3 years, the family have been separated with Julie spending half of the week at Manchester Children’s Hospital and her husband, Nigel, spending the other half at the hospital. Julie and Nigel also have two other children, so they have been juggling family commitments throughout this time. The terraced house the family were living in was not suitable to allow Dan to come home.

Deacon Kim is a member of the same running club as Julie, Dan’s mum. Julie tried to run with the club once a week when she could and would often share updates on Dan’s progress.

“Freckleton has a strong village community,” says Deacon Kim. The family had been told that they would need to raise at least £100,000 to put their house on the market and moved to a bungalow in the village, which they hoped could then be adapted to accommodate for Dan’s needs. A GoFundMe page was set up to raise funds to ‘Get Dan Home’.

Three Churches in Freckleton helped with some of the fundraising, holding a fundraising event in the Methodist Church Hall. Deacon Kim and Craig Eckersley (Church Warden, Holy Trinity Church, Freckleton), also took part in a 22-mile bed push from Fleetwood to Freckleton.

In February 2024, Deacon Kim, along with representatives from the Anglican and Catholic churches, were invited to bless the bungalow that the family had moved into. This needed a tremendous amount of work doing to it before Dan could come home.

The family has been held in the prayers of the villagers as they raised money for the adaptations to the bungalow and the story of Dan came to the attention of the Producers of the BBC Programme, DIY SoS. Presenter Nick Knowles and his colleagues recruited regional volunteer builders, craftsmen and helpers to transform the new family home making it suitable for severely disabled Dan.

“I gave some time to serve, along with many members of the village community” says Kim. “Each time a delivery was made; top soil, turf, pea pebbles, wood chippings or furniture, volunteers would use wheelbarrows to take the resources to where they needed to be and I was there to help. The Revd Tracy and I were ‘working’ on the same two days and the production team were interested that two members of clergy were involved in the project. They interviewed us. I likened the project to being like a piece in the jigsaw…there was a bigger picture emerging. A lot had been done already to show the family support, and once the home was ready to receive the whole family, a new chapter could begin, as they would be reunited and could then begin to rebuild their lives”.

Gabrielle Blackman, the interior designer, said that the project was impossible on paper, but was made possible by the willingness and generous spirit of so many people.

Kim says, “It was amazing to be able to play a small part in the project, to represent the Church and the community. Many people played their part and it was a privilege to be alongside so many different people, to hear their stories of where they were from and why they wanted to be part of it, being present to these people, as well as serving in this way.

“A small part of the kingdom has been built”, says Kim... “and we were all part of it!!!”