DIY SOS: 'I helped Nick Knowles and the team on Rafi's Road to Recovery and saw burley builders crying'
Chris Hudson is one of 600 volunteers who helped change little Rafi's lifeDIY SOS will tonight feature the emotional story of nine-year-old Rafi Amer, who was left severely brain damaged after contracting E coli.
A staggering 600 volunteers gave up their time to help presenter Nick Knowles and the DIY SOS team significantly change the little boy’s life.
Rafi’s home needed some serious adaptions to ensure he could stay living there – and it was all made possible by the team.
TVGuide has now spoken to one of those tradesmen, who says he would do it all again “in a heartbeat”. Here, Chris Hudson exclusively reveals what it was like to work on the BBC show.
DIY SOS: Rafi’s Road to Recovery
Chris, 52, runs a local flooring company and jumped at the chance of taking part in DIY SOS: Rafi’s Road to Recovery. He tells us it’s always been an ambition of his to take part in an episode of the hugely popular BBC show.
Chris says: “When my daughter was younger, we were always watching DIY SOS. I always used to say, ‘I’d love to be involved in this and do something’. Then my daughter spotted the call out for local volunteers on Facebook and I jumped on it.”
Chris was invited to a ‘Trades Day’ selection process, which was held at Rafi’s house. Rafi and the family had already moved out to a nearby hotel. Chris met with the design team, including the show’s Radha Siyver, and chatted about what he could offer.
He was delighted to be given the thumbs up that same day and invited to help out with the build in Bracknell, Berkshire.
The big build: Day 1
Chris arrived at Rafi’s three-bed terrace house at 7.30am on the first day of filming. He was directed a five minute walk away to a large marquee that had been set up in a field. Chris says: “The first day was incredible. You turn up, sign in and are given a hard hat with the DIY SOS logo on and a high-vis.
“I went to the marquee to have a cup of tea and hundreds of people started arriving. There was probably about 150 to 200 people. The production team came in, gave us a run down and reminded us all why we were there. We were told filming would be going on but that they just wanted us to do our job, not duck under the cameras.”
The granddad-of-two added: “It is an unusual circumstance, as you never get this number of trades in a house working together. There can sometimes be animosity. But they made sure we all knew we were there for the right reasons and we were told to keep it fun and lighthearted.”
Meeting Rafi and the family
Chris and the hoard of volunteers were then called to the house to meet Rafi, his parents Dean and Laura and sister Sienna, 14. He says: “They shut off the road to traffic, got the drones and film crew ready and had us walking down the road like an army.
“We got to the house and then the family came out. They gave a little speech about how much it was all going to mean to them and then left. It was pretty emotional. I’ve got a daughter and I’ve got grandkids. You can’t help but relate to it.
“It was really sad to see how the family were having to make do. They were days away from social services forcing Dean and Laura to put Rafi into permanent care.”
Chris adds: “As soon as their car had left, everyone was straight in the house. We just pulled it apart! It was a case of getting in there and filling our boots!”
DIY SOS: Hard graft and banter
DIY SOS splits its helpers into three groups – construction, general volunteers and garden. Chris was put with construction. Although he specialises in flooring, he rolled his sleeves up and helped with the builders.
He laughs: “I was told to pull a ceiling and wall down! I’m not a builder by trade but you just jump in there and see what needs doing.
“The atmosphere was amazing. Sometimes I can be trying to do flooring in a house and if another trade arrives, they can be like ‘Get out my way, I’m here’. But it wasn’t like that the whole week we were on site.”
Chris, who owns Chris Hudson Flooring in Surrey, adds: “I remember trying to come down the stairs and there was 10 people working on them. I had to put my hands on one man’s shoulders to step around him and ended up giving him a massage. I’d never met him before in my life. It was surreal!
“Everybody knew they were doing it to give Rafi and his family a better quality of life. We all just kept this in mind. The production team were also very forthcoming with praise, which was really nice.”
Nick Knowles: ‘One of the lads’
Chris has revealed that Nick Knowles and the rest of the DIY SOS team were on site all day, every day. The only time they were away from Rafi’s house was when they were visiting the youngster and his family. Chris describes Nick as “one of the lads”.
He says: “You do have to work around them, as they are almost getting in your way. They don’t just show up, film a bit to camera and leave.
“I stood having a cup of tea with Nick outside. I forgot he was a TV personality and was just chatting to him like he was one of the lads.
“Nick has been doing the job a long time and knows the score. You can chat to him about the project. He’s really approachable. He’s a really nice guy, it was like talking to a mate.”
Chris adds: “Nick’s not picking up tools and knocking a wall down, but he knows what he’s doing.”
Does the BBC pay the DIY SOS tradesmen?
Chris says DIY SOS volunteer tradesmen and women do not receive any form of payment.
He explains: “I paid for the materials I supplied. It came out of my pocket and is the same for everyone who is helping. You can’t charge for materials or labour, everything is free of charge. I covered the cost of flooring, underlay, everything.”
In return, the BBC production crew ensured the volunteers – which totalled 600 across the eight days – were looked after “very well”. Breakfast, lunch and dinner was provided – along with gallons of tea, coffee and piles of snacks.
“We were kept fed and watered the entire time,” Chris, who has not been paid for this interview, says. “At one point, there was someone walking around with donuts and I just couldn’t fit anything else in.
“On another day, I had a sausage roll in my hand and someone was walking around with a tray of Belgium buns. They’re my favourite but I was halfway through my sausage roll and I just couldn’t do it!”
DIY SOS: The final day
DIY SOS viewers will see big sister Sienna being given her own dance studio in the newly-revamped house. Sienna is a world champion dancer but she put her passion on hold for an entire year when Rafi fell ill.
Chris had a significant role in transforming Sienna’s special room. He says: “We put the carpets down upstairs. We also helped put the special flooring down in Sienna’s dance studio. We were really happy to do this for her.”
Chris describes the final day as “very emotional”. All 600 volunteers from across the week were invited to the marquee for 10am. Chris says they were “spilling out” the sides. “There is just so many people involved in a job like this,” he explains.
The volunteers were then shown part of the DIY SOS episode, which had already been filmed and edited. Chris remembers: “There wasn’t a dry eye in that marquee. I was looking at some big burley builders and they all had tears rolling down their faces.’
Rafi’s big reveal
But there was more emotion to come. The army of helpers surrounded the house to see Rafi and his family’s reaction to all their hard work and plenty of tears were shed.
“We all squeezed round the house as much as possible, then Rafi, Laura, Dean and Sienna came out,” Chris says. “There was no rehearsal. They came out and it was all raw. They were emotional, we were emotional. It was just an incredible feeling.”
Reflecting on the entire experience, Chris adds: “I would do it again in a heartbeat. There’s so much negativity in the world and all you hear is bad news. But this makes you realise there are some good things that happen.
“The family was telling everyone that Rafi was just days away from having to leave the family home. To be able to do what we all did was just amazing.”
Read more: DIY SOS star Nick Knowles in tears as Rafi Amer, 9, sees his transformed bedroom for the first time
