DIY SOS returns as Nick Knowles and team transform the life of Nell after her mum's tragic death
Teenager Nell has been in a wheelchair all of her lifeNick Knowles and the DIY SOS team are back for a brand new series and tonight’s episode will leave you reaching for the tissues.
Nick travels to Scotland to meet the Connelly family who are in desperate need of help.
Teenage daughter Nell was born with a rare bone condition, which means she has never been able to walk.
Her parents, Raymond and Gill, bought a new house ready to adapt for her needs, with Gill drawing up the plans.
But just after the couple had ripped out the kitchen, tragedy struck.
Gill fell gravely ill and needed an emergency kidney transplant. She then developed sepsis while recovering.
Within two days, Gill was dead.
Raymond has been forced to give up his job to care full-time for Nell in a completely unsuitable house.
He is even being forced to use a hotplate to cook Nell and her brother Kai’s meals.
Can Nick and the DIY SOS team help?
Nick Knowles and DIY SOS returns with Nell’s Next Chapter
Nick announced the return of DIY SOS on his social media last week. He promised the new series would be a “fun, emotional and reassuring ride”.
If tonight’s episode, called Nell’s Next Chapter, is anything to go by, he definitely got the emotional part right.
Nick travels to the Connelly family’s home to meet Raymond, Nell and her older brother Kai. He is left on the verge of tears as he hears their plight.
Raymond tells him: “When Nell was born, they told us she had Arthrogryposis. They said it was like a curvature of the joints and she wouldn’t be able to walk.”
He explains how Kai is “always looking out” for his younger sister, adding: “We’ve always been a tight family”.
But two months after moving into their three-bedroomed semi, Gill became seriously unwell.
“I heard her up in the toilet being sick,” Raymond says. Gill was whisked to hospital and the prognosis was not good.
“I got to the intensive care unit and a doctor came out and said that Gill was really, really ill and needed a liver transplant,” he adds.
Gill had an emergency liver transplant a week later. But Raymond recalls: “It was all looking good and then she got sepsis.
“They told us her whole immune system had gone.” Breaking down, he cries: “She lasted about two days. It was terrible.”
Nick’s arrival comes just seven months after Gill’s death. And he’s shocked by what he sees.
Raymond is having to cook on two electric hotplates and with just a microwave. The house also has terrible wheelchair access. Raymond even struggles to get Nell into the back garden.
“We’d ripped out the kitchen and started to get things moving,” Raymond explains. “But since Gill passed away, all of our plans have ground to a halt.”
The Connelly family’s build
Nick and the DIY SOS team – including show favourites Billy Byrne and Gaby Blackman – are more than willing to help. Two months later, they return to the house with an entire army of local volunteers and tradespeople.
They decide to stick with the plans Gill had drawn up before she died. But the team want to supersize them.
Nell’s very keen to have some privacy with her own bedroom, bathroom and hoist. But she is also desperate for a walk-in wardrobe.
In one emotional scene, she tells Nick: “I still tell mum the gossip when I’m supposed to be sleeping.”
Her brother Kai also explains how he wants pictures of their beloved mum in the house and plenty of room for flowers – because Gill was a florist.
Kai tells all the volunteers before the work starts: “[Mum] would always help out. I’m sure if it was somebody in the crowd she’d be there with you.”
As Nick and the team get to work, they quickly realise they will cause a big disturbance to the neighbours at the front of the house. Instead, they remove the rear fence and plan to transport everything 200 yards down a country footpath into the back garden.
This includes the massive beams needed for a huge timber frame extension. In fact, it’s one of the biggest timber extensions ever built on the BBC show…
Gill’s favourite colour was pink, specifically coral, so Gaby promises to add “pops” of coral throughout the house.
But once the ground has been broken, the Scottish weather takes a turn.
Can Nick and the DIY SOS team pull it out of the bag and transform the Connelly family’s lives forever?
We have an inkling they will. It’s good to have you back, Nick and the team!
