DIY SOS guest shared her heartbreak after being forced to turn off her daughter and husband’s life support machine.
Presenter Nick Knowles and his team visited Caroline Blanchard and her children Reece and Paige in Scunthorpe.
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The single mum has twice had to make the heart-wrenching decision to turn off life support for people she loves.
For Caroline, the nightmare started in 2007 when her seven-year-old daughter Natasha banged her head in the garage.
The youngster was playing on a mini motorbike and accidentally hit her head on a cupboard.
Her condition quickly deteriorated and she was rushed to hospital.
Sadly, her injuries were so severe that Caroline and her husband had to turn off the life-support machine two days after the accident.
“I just remember the surgeon coming in and telling me she was bleeding that badly she couldn’t stop it,” a tearful Caroline recalled.
Unfortunately, the incident took its toll on the whole family.
The couple struggled to deal with their loss, with Caroline saying that Paul lost the “sparkle” from his eye.
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In 2016 tragedy struck again when Paul had a heart attack at their conservatory.
Caroline said: “He would suffer with chest pains and palpitations, they kept saying it was stress and anxiety from the loss of Natasha.
“We were just sat in the conservatory and he just made this horrendous noise.
“I looked at him and said ‘Paul are you alright?’ and he stood up but he had his arms in the chair, he took the whole chair with him, and just fell clean to the floor and started convulsing.”
Paul was kept a life support machine for 10 days, but Caroline once had to turn off his life-support.
Son Reece heartbreakingly told host Nick: “I just wish I could see my dad again. That would be amazing if I could.”
Now the three of them have to live in the shadow of their grief, with the garage and the conservatory being a painful reminder of the tragedies.
Despite the sad memories, Caroline explained they didn’t want to move away because they had spent several happy years there.
Nick and his band of volunteers were on a mission to renovate the home, including demolishing the garage and conservatory.
“Today a community come together to help a family in desperate need,” says Nick on the show.
“It’s a story of loss, of crippling grief and of a community who battle the elements to support a devastated family.
“It’s going to be an emotional journey for us all. But by wiping away the painful memories we’re building to give a grieving family the chance to start to move forward.”
The build would have cost more than £75,000 without the generosity of the volunteers.
When asked by Nick on Twitter how they were enjoying their renovated home, Caroline tweeted back: “It’s amazing, absolutely love every inch of the whole place, so overwhelming what everyone has done for us, able to come downstairs and enjoy a coffee in the sunshine is priceless.”
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