Making hard lives Sweeter
BBC1, 8pm ““YOU can’t help everyone but everyone can help someone.” Whoever knew Nick Knowles could be so wise?
In another tearjerker of an episode, Nick and a team of more than 100 volunteers pull off a life-changing home makeover for the Sweet family in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset.
Cat and Chris have three kids, all of whom have extremely serious life-limiting illnesses.
The youngest, six-year-old Harry, was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which causes joint and skin problems just before his first birthday.
Then, in 2017, genetic testing revealed their other children, Louisa, 14, and Max, 11, had Friedreich’s Ataxia, a rare neurodegenerative condition.
All three children will need to use wheelchairs full time in the near future, but the family home is making life a struggle. Louisa says: “Mum deserves the house being done more than we do, because she struggles getting my brothers up the stairs and around the house.” The family looks to the future with real dread, knowing what these awful degenerative conditions hold in store. Full- time carer Cat says she’s “really strong most of the time, but I always have a wobble on their birthdays and I hate it” wondering whether it will be their last.
Cat fears that if the house isn’t appropriate or safe for children with such serious medical needs, Harry, Louisa and Max won’t be able to live in the house any more.
They are all overwhelmed as the hordes of volunteers turn up ready to start the mammoth project, which brings the family “a little bit of normal”.
Emotional doesn’t even begin to cover it...