Chesterfield building company boss's free garden makeover for single mum of son with mobility issues

Chris Maloney and his partner Aimee Ball have spearheaded a free garden makeover at the family home of Charlie Beresford, 21, whose condition has robbed him of much of his mobility.

Charlie's grateful mum Anna Tesdale said: "From the bottom of my heart, thank you – the garden is out of this world. What the team has done is incredible...they were so kind and so polite, they felt like part of the family.

“The garden was uneven and Charlie could barely get outside. Now it's beautifully flat; Charlie can get on the trampoline and we can have family barbecues.”

Charlie, who is doing a computing course at Chesterfield College, has complex hereditary spastic paraplegia and dementia. HIs sister Mac, 15, is autistic and has ADHD. Their 18-year-old brother George suffered a rare auto-immune reaction to Covid which caused a cardiac arrest and he ended up in intensive care in 2019.

Anna, 40, is fighting her own health battles and has had long Covid for two years. She said: "It's ruined my life. I used to be quite confident and go out a lot, now I don't want to leave the house. I've got issues with my heart, Postural Tachycardia Syndrome which means that if I stand up too quickly I can faint, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue."

She appealed for help to sort out the family's 30ft garden at their bungalow on Brearley Street, Old Whittington, a few years ago. Anna said: "The garden was diabolical, even though I’d done a lot of work on it myself. People said we'll help, then they saw it and it was like 'nope'.

Two years ago, the national charity Well Child funded the improvement of a very small section of the garden to allow Charlie to spend some time outside. But the rest of the garden remained boggy and uneven which made it tough going for his wheelchair.

Since then Charlie’s plight has tugged the heart-strings of company bosses Chris and Aimee, who run CMD Build, on Storforth Lane, Hasland.

Managing director Chris said: "We recently offered the people of Chesterfield a garden makeover totally free of charge in our 'random act of kindness project'. Anna and Charlie's story partially stood out to us because Anna is a single mother with three children; Charlie being the eldest at 21 who over the last two years following his diagnosis has declined rapidly. When they told us about their journey it filled our eyes with tears. I knew we would be able to make a huge difference to their home quite quickly and easily. We are so pleased that we are able to offer a helping hand to totally transform some garden space to enable Charlie to use it.

"Aimee and I had budgeted £1,500 for the project but with a donation from Jewson for landscaping we were able to do so much more than we originally thought possible. This included widening a path from the house to the garden,. We then restored and painted the decking that was already in place.

"Once we had levelled the garden and laid a large patio area we then laid new turf on the whole garden. We purchased the turf separately but all the patio sand, cement and machinery were donated by Jewson Chesterfield.

"To finish off the garden we then had fencing materials donated by Travis Perkins Chesterfield. This enabled us to fence off the bottom of the garden to make it secure and safe.

"The work we have done now gives them three "zones" within their new completely accessible garden. There is a decked area separated with a large planter made from timber sleepers from a large patio area that leads to a brand new garden where the trampoline now lives at ground level.

"In total the project would cost in the region of £3,500 with materials and labour. It is because of the kind donations made, in particular by Jewson Chesterfield, that we were able to do so much more."It took Aimee and ,I along with two of our landscapers Tommy Leighton and Ryan Clarke, a week to complete. Tommy has a vast amount of experience in landscaping and truly brought together mine and Aimee's vision perfectly."

Chris said that seeing the reaction of Anna and Charlie has made him want to run a random act of kindness projects every three months. He said: "I feel with the world we live in today helping someone, no matter how big or small, can completely change someone's life. Even if only for the day."Seven years ago Chris was told that he had 'days maybe weeks to live' after surgeons found a large non-cancerous growth on his brain. Chris said: "It began with extreme headaches which led on to memory loss, so bad that I actually forgot how to read and write. I also forgot how to drive while driving, fortunately no-one was injured and I was able to park up safely. I then started losing my vision and had numerous periods through each day where I would completely lose my vision. I then one day collapsed which was then I finally accepted I needed to visit my GP."

Chris had an MRI scan at Chesterfield Royal Hospital the day before his 31st birthday and was initially told that it would take around 15 minutes and the results would be posted to him. He said: "I ended up being on the MRI machine for nearly an hour when they immediately told me that a doctor was coming to talk to me about my results. The doctor nervously told me they 'had found something and it was big'.

A few hours later Chris was on his way to Sheffield Hallamshire Hospital where he had emergency brain surgery to remove the tumour which was the size of a fist. A lot of the mass was made up of brain fluid that caused many obstructions. But surgery didn't solve the brain fluid issue and after repeated operations Chris had to have a shunt fitted from his brain to his stomach to continually drain the fluid. He said: "I had six operations in total, three stomach, two spine and one shoulder.

"During my time in hospital I met many people going through a range of different complications. When I was first told about my need for surgery I felt like the only person in the world going through it. I ended up talking to other patients and their families to put them at ease about the process and explain each step. I ended up being an unofficial brain surgery coach. I have now talked through and helped 31 families/patients going through similar situations. I just want people to feel more comfortable by knowing as much as possible."

Surgery left Chris with epilepsy but apart from that he says he leads a normal life.

He said: "Throughout my surgery and recovery I had kept myself involved with many charitable events and fundraising activities which I had done for many years anyway. I felt like I had a second chance to life and wanted to give as much back as I could.

"I've got a few other local projects that I am funding/starting soon which encourage those that are lonely or want a reason to leave their home to meet up each week at different spots around Chesterfield to simply collect litter. I'm calling it Talk Trash. I want to encourage the community to do something good for the environment while giving people a weekly purpose and reason to get out of the house. Meeting and chatting with strangers could be the only joy that some people find each week. Also young families wanting to encourage their children to do a little more good.

"I'm super excited about getting this launched. I am just sourcing all the PPE and equipment needed and then will be launching this once the website and Facebook page is completed."