Conwy Valley girl's DIY SOS plea

Jul 14 2011 by David Powell, North Wales Weekly News

AN EIGHT-year-old girl faces a brighter future after her SOS for DIY was answered.

Little Erica Williams’ mum Gemma died two years ago and now her dad David has bowel cancer.

He had to put building work on their house on hold due to his illness, so they’ve lived in a caravan for six years.

Now TV experts are renovating their house for BBC1’s DIY SOS, fronted by Nick Knowles.

They visited the family yesterday to check how they will be sprucing up the house, called The Old Chapel in Dolgarrog.

Former bin man David, 53, who lives in the dilapidated caravan next to their two-bedroom, uninhabitable shell of a house, said: “What this TV show is doing is fantastic. They are doing something for Erica that cancer prevented me from doing.

“She’s thrilled to bits. She’s getting to the age when she has sleep-overs. She’s been to a friend’s house but because of a lack of space she couldn’t invite them back.

“If the makeover happens she’ll be able to invite them over.”

Asked if Erica wants her bedroom to be pink, he replied: “She’s a very nice little girl. She’s more concerned about my bedroom than hers!”

On his health and treatment, he said: “I’m not too bad. My feet feel like they belong to someone else and my fingers don’t work properly.

“It will be five to six years before I am provisionally cancer free and ten years before I am officially cancer free.”

David bought the land his house is built on in 1988 with his first wife Jane. She was then diagnosed with Huntington’s Disease from which she died ten years later.

David, who then met his second wife Gemma, with whom he had Erica, said: “My second wife gave Erica the name Jane as a middle name out of respect for my first wife.”

He started building the house in 2005 but during the work, Gemma was diagnosed with cancer and was told she had just six months to live.

David gave up his job as a bin man and stopped working on the house to become her full-time carer.

Sadly, Gemma passed away in 2009 when Erica was just six years old.

Tradesmen offering to help free of charge between August 10-18 can contact Lucy Lane on 07711 913348 or e-mail: lucy.lane@bbc.co.uk. Meals will be provided. Volunteers are invited back on August 19 to welcome the family home.