Let’s Get Dirty !
3rd October 2025
In September DIYSOS came to Northwich, my local town to embark on the huge job of building a new extension to the our local Children’s Cancer Therapy Centre ‘ The Joshua Tree’.
The Joshua Tree has been part of my local community for a number of years. They have been consistent in fundraising, donations and of course lots of voluntary participation. The centre provides support for families affected by childhood cancer by offering therapy with professionals, well being sessions, specialist sibling support and much more.
The Joshua Tree were selected to be part of the BBC DIYSOS and Children in Need to build an incredible extension to the already existing building to provide much needed space and extra facilities to enhance the charity.
After following the my local Facebook page I saw an advert to be a general volunteer for as long or as short as you could spare so obviously I jumped at the chance. I became part of the team midway through the build so it was the dirty stage, getting those plaster boards up, insulation and plastering. Not expecting to work so hard we were thrown into it straight away. I began with insulation, not my favourite job I have to say. We carried pallets of plasterboards upstairs and downstairs ( bruises to prove it), we cleaned up after the plasterers, who do make an awful mess, we tidied up the exterior site, shifted debris to skips, wired up the generators, shifted a kitchen and much more.
There were hundreds of trades from all over the country – The Glaswegian Plasterers – Fabulous!!
I loved every moment of the 10 hour shifts of pure hard graft and a lot of laughs. It brought back the absolute brilliance of people who are willing to do something for nothing be caring, kind, funny, passionate and most of all not expect anything in return.
THE BEST TIME .- THANK YOU FOR HAVING ME
