Latest news with #DIYsos
BBC News
23-05-2025
- General
- BBC News
DIY SOS youth club in Beverley recruits 80-year-old volunteer
DIY SOS presenter Nick Knowles has hailed the "community spirit" of volunteers in East Yorkshire as hundreds of people joined forces to build a club for homeless young building was finished on Thursday after the team spent eight days transforming a field in Beverley, East Yorkshire, into a new home for the Cherry Tree Youth the crew was 80-year-old retired tradesman John Whelan who volunteered on the project for the BBC programme every Whelan, from Beverley, said he took part "for the kids - for their future - so that they can learn, enjoy something and be taught new things in life". Cherry Tree supports around 90 young people a week aged 10 to18 - and for those with special educational needs and disabilities up to the age of youth club was launched in 2016, but members of the group had been meeting in a gazebo in a park since the pandemic while a permanent home was Whelan's daughter, Angela Oldroyd, urged her father to participate in the community project after his wife said he would have loved to take part if he was Oldroyd said: "He was in the trade for 50 years, he knows his stuff inside and out and what better person to have on site than somebody who knows his stuff?" 'Buzzing' "He's had a tough year health-wise. We thought it would do him the world of good mentally and physically to get out and do something for the community," she Whelan has been sweeping up and helping the joiners. He called the work "good fun". "I'm buzzing just watching it all happen," he said. The single-storey building featured a communal area, a kitchen, meeting room, storage area and toilets. There was also an outdoor gym and a cycle path. DIY SOS presenter Nick Knowles said people came from as far as Scotland, Devon and London and "pulled off a miracle"."To be able to build out of the ground with no services in eight days to provide a place for the youngsters around here and let the people who run this amazing place and carry out the amazing work - they're the people that did it," he added."People in the area should be really proud of the community spirit that's alive and well." Gabrielle Blackman, an interior designer who also presents the show, described the project as a "superhuman effort" from "incredibly talented people who really care"."I've been crying for about an hour, I'm so thrilled. Everyone is amazing," she said."They've all made friends, people have been given jobs. It's an explosion of good stuff."DIY SOS is due to broadcast the story later this year. Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here.
The Independent
19-05-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Nick Knowles: Housebuilding plans are a chance to include ‘essential' gardens
TV presenter Nick Knowles has said gardens are 'essential' to health and wellbeing, as he called for them to be part of the UK's housebuilding plans. In an at-times emotional speech at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, Knowles described the power of gardens to support people who had suffered trauma or grief, from the death of a child to veterans injured in Afghanistan. He also said community gardens, public parks and allotments 'knit us together' and give people something in common at a time when everything was being driven apart in a polarised world. The BBC's DIY SOS: The Big Build and its forerunner DIY SOS have transformed homes and gardens of people who have suffered loss or trauma or been affected by disability, turned derelict properties into suitable houses for homeless veterans and created facilities for communities and children. Knowles, who has presented both shows, said with housebuilding high on the agenda, it was a chance to build new homes with solar panels, heat pumps and gardens to help the environment and people. The Government has said it wants to build 1.5 million new homes as part of its plan for growth, and the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), which holds the Chelsea Flower Show every year at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, wants to see new homes built with garden spaces that benefit people and wildlife. Describing the value of gardens, Knowles said: 'Gardens offer something that no amount of technology can replicate. They slow us down, they connect us to something ancient, something human. 'There's magic in watching something grow, in putting your hands in the earth and feeling, if only for a moment, that you're part of something bigger than yourself.' 'The simple act of tending to or sitting in the garden teaches patience, and teaches care. 'You can't rush a daffodil, you can't force a tree to grow quicker,' he said before joking that designers at the Chelsea Flower Show had been trying to get blooms to come to fruition in time for the event. 'There's great medical and scientific evidence, which, of course, the brilliant people at the RHS have championed for years that gardens are not just nice to have, they're essential for physical health, for our nation's mental wellbeing, for community spirit, for recovery from trauma, even for stopping loneliness. 'A garden doesn't just beautify a space, it heals it, and often the people in it,' he said. 'Whether you're growing a prize-winning rose, a handful of carrots, or even if you're fond of a weed that's growing in your garden, you're making the world better, greener, kinder, slower, in the best possible way,' he said. 'With house building being high in the public consciousness, it's a chance to think that new homes be built with solar on the roof to reduce electricity consumption, ground or air source pumps to reduce fuel consumption, maybe a garden to help the environment and stop us becoming 'neurovores', living on our nerves.' While he acknowledged retrofitting green tech and putting in a garden could be expensive in tough times, it was easy to achieve and cost little when building a huge estate of new homes, he argued, and added construction firms were seeing it made homes more attractive to the buyer long term.
Daily Mail
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Nick Knowles' fiancé Katie Dadzie, 34, celebrates her hen do in London's West End as her pals sport face masks of the DIY SOS star, 62
Nick Knowles ' fiancé Katie Dadzie headed to London's West End on Saturday with pals as she celebrated her hen party. The lingerie brand boss, 34, and DIY SOS star, 62, began dating in 2021 after they met when their children became friends at a play centre before getting engaged in 2023. And Katie kicked off the wedding celebrations over the weekend at luxury boutique hotel Karma Sanctum as she was joined by close friends Kirsty Shaw and Sherene Fuller. The group arrived on a beer bus and then headed through party district Soho wearing Nick Knowles face masks, much to the amusement of Katie, ahead of partying at Karma Sanctum. Katie was later entertained by two buff men dressed as a fireman and policeman as the party carried on into the early hours. The bride-to-be stepped out for her hen night in a white strapless mini-dress and diamante heels with her brunette locks styled in waves. Katie and the TV star have been subject to cruel trolling during their relationship, with critics mocking their age difference and financial setup. Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, about the 'gold digger' jibes, Katie admitted they don't get to her as much as they used to because she and Nick know its not true. She said: 'I think at the start, it was probably more irritating, especially for my family. But now those comments kind of just pass over me because we both know it's not true. 'Nick works hard, he has what he has. I work hard, I have what I have and then we buy each other stuff.' Katie continued: 'We're both really comfortable with where we are with that and you will always get it because there's an age gap. 'I know plenty of people who are together and the same age where someone's using the other one for money and they're not happy. 'So as long as I know it's not true and he knows it's not true, I think that's, that's pretty much all that matters.' Nick has an estimated £7.5 million net worth but Katie has built up an impressive lingerie brand, having launched Boa Boa in 2022. The bride-to-be stepped out for her hen night in a white strapless mini-dress and diamante heels with her brunette locks styled in waves She has proved to be her own best advert for the brand, modelling the skimpy looks to her 102,000 Instagram followers. Katie revealed her battle with endometriosis has impacted the pictures she posts as she is now on a mission to show off her 'real' figure. Endometriosis is a condition where tissue similar to the uterine lining grows outside of the uterus. It can cause pelvic pain, heavy periods, and difficulty getting pregnant. Speaking about how she wants to represent real women Katie shared : 'I've got slightly better at trying to show slightly more real, as in I've put weight on recently so I know I can't just have the better picture of me where I haven't eaten at the start of the morning. 'I've got horrendous endometriosis, so I do bloat terribly but that's the company ethos that it's underwear that's made to fit you regardless of your size.'
