FLEX-R WORKED WITH the Band of Builders charity to help bring Luke Goold-Hannatt home after a three-year hospital stay.

Luke, a trainee bricklayer was just 17 years old and in the second year of a bricklaying course when he suffered an aneurysm known as arteriovenous malformation in January 2020. It was first thought he might not survive, but pulling through, he has been left with profound disabilities which require constant care.

After surgery and treatment at Ipswich Hospital, Luke was transferred to a rehabilitation centre in Norwich, and then to the Sue Ryder Neurological Care Centre in Ipswich, in January of 2022. Following the lifting of COVID restrictions, the family were able to visit Luke more frequently. However, wishing to bring Luke home by Christmas 2023, they therefore needed to build a ground-floor extension.

Tony Steel, Operations Director for Band of Builders explains how the charity learned about Luke’s case. “A member of our team found out about Luke’s story in the local newspaper and got in touch with Luke’s parents. Once that conversation got going, we really wanted to help them as what happened was tragic. After the initial paperwork we put out a call to bricklayers, who wanted to get involved once they learned Luke was an apprentice bricklayer.”

“We went on site with the bricklayers and started examining what could be done, what applications needed to be made, and then from there, we got going.”

Assessing what materials would be needed, Tony and the team at Band of Builders got in touch with SIG Flex-R.

Emma Butterworth, Business Development Manager at Flex-R explains, “We received an email from Gavin, the CEO of Band of Builders explaining the situation and asking if they could get some support. We were very keen to get involved, especially with it being so close to SIG Ipswich. We sent over the details of the products that Band of Builders were interested in and took it from there.”

Flex-R Materials Donated

The products supplied by Flex-R included their EPDM system and ancillaries, which were used on the roof. Alongside the products, Flex-R also provided support to the volunteers working on site, answering any technical questions about the EPDM system to ensure the work was done smoothly and without any issues.

For Tony, the support provided by Flex-R has been simply fantastic in ensuring that the project, that should have taken 13 weeks was completed in four weeks. “I want to give a massive thank you to the team at Flex-R for supporting the project. From providing the materials needed to answering any questions we’ve had, they’ve been fantastic. Without them we wouldn’t have been able to get started on this project and ensure that Luke’s family are able to bring him home in time for Christmas.”

With the extension now completed, the family is currently waiting for specialist equipment to be installed after which Luke can finally go home by September.

>> Read more about the Luke’s project here 

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