Roof con OAP’s good Samaritans

An elderly cancer sufferer who was conned out of £9,000 by rogue builders has had his ruined roof fixed after the community rallied round and donated money.
From left: Clare Huddleston, who set up the Facebook page Help Mend Jack's Roof, community fundraiser Karen Crossley and nurse Alice Brewer. Clare presented a cheque for £1530 to St John's Hospice from the remainder of funds raised by generous donations from members of the public to fix an OAP's roof after he was conned out of £10,000 by rogue roofers.From left: Clare Huddleston, who set up the Facebook page Help Mend Jack's Roof, community fundraiser Karen Crossley and nurse Alice Brewer. Clare presented a cheque for £1530 to St John's Hospice from the remainder of funds raised by generous donations from members of the public to fix an OAP's roof after he was conned out of £10,000 by rogue roofers.
From left: Clare Huddleston, who set up the Facebook page Help Mend Jack's Roof, community fundraiser Karen Crossley and nurse Alice Brewer. Clare presented a cheque for £1530 to St John's Hospice from the remainder of funds raised by generous donations from members of the public to fix an OAP's roof after he was conned out of £10,000 by rogue roofers.

A neighbour of 80-year-old Jack, from Morecambe, Clare Huddleston, was so disgusted at the state the roofers left his property in that she set up a Facebook page called ‘Help Mend Jack’s Roof’ for members of the community to donate money to help buy materials to mend his roof.

Clare said: “The target was £2000 and we raised £2190, over the target.

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“I just wanted to get Jack a new roof and now it’s all done and dusted I’m so glad for him.

Roofer Jimmy Armer on the roof which tradesmen and members of the public clubbed together to fix.Roofer Jimmy Armer on the roof which tradesmen and members of the public clubbed together to fix.
Roofer Jimmy Armer on the roof which tradesmen and members of the public clubbed together to fix.

“Jack’s wife died in St John’s Hospice in Lancaster so we decided to donate the remainder of the funds for the roof, £1530, to the hospice.”

Jack said: “It knocked me back but I’m trying to be philosophical about it. The roofers have been reported to Trading Standards and the police.”

Roofer Jimmy Armer, 42, of Westgate, got involved in helping mend Jack’s roof after reading about it on Facebook.

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He said: “To me it wasn’t about the money, I wanted to restore a bit of faith back into the community.

“Thanks to Bay Scaffolding, Jim Hancock at the Hancock group, Bob and Mick at Lancaster Reclaim Slates, Travis Perkins Carnforth, Bob at Plastech and Jewsons of Morecambe. We would also like to thank all local tradesmen including Simon, Josh and Brian Verbic and Michael Pullen from Genesis Construction, Paul Close and Sam Whiteway.”