Julie lives in a one-bedroom supported flat in Bedford which she shares with her pet rabbit. She receives support from care staff and our Partnerships team, who work with customers with learning difficulties and/or autism. Sheena is one of our Partnerships Coordinators. She told us: “Julie struggles with depression and mild learning difficulties, but she wasn’t receiving the support she…
Carl, 39, is one of our customers who’s in need of some extra support from our Partnerships team. Carl had been living with his mum, but as she was getting older, it was decided that it would be a good idea for him to live more independently and in 2019, he moved into his one-bedroom flat in Bedfordshire. Sheena is…
Jacky, 69, had been living in a ground floor flat in Sandy for 10 years, feeling lonely and suffering from anxiety. She would regularly admire a block of new apartments that were being built in Biggleswade, thinking how nice it would be to live somewhere like that. “I thought the apartments must be private because they looked so lovely. But…
Jackie, 57, was living in a council flat in a lovely Bedfordshire village, but antisocial behaviour from her neighbours was causing her a great deal of stress. “I’d had my right leg amputated below the knee, after an operation went wrong, then I had a heart attack, so I was desperate for somewhere where I could live in peace. “Someone…
Wendy, 59, moved into her Grand Union home in a Bedfordshire village in 1994, having lived in the village since the age of 14. Two years ago, after a serious illness, a social prescriber suggested gardening therapy to help with her mental health issues. “I joined Grand Union’s Gardening for Wellbeing group; I was one of the first to join.…
Kiera, 28, was living with her parents in Milton Keynes, where she grew up, but was longing for a place of her own. She knew that on her own, she’d not get a mortgage for a substantial sum of money to buy locally, but she also knew that shared ownership could be her answer. “I had a chat with a…
Two years ago, Jan and Peter were living in a four-bed house near the coast in Carmarthenshire, Wales, but at the start of the Covid pandemic, Peter, a former postman of 21 years, suffered a stroke. Once Peter was on the mend, the couple, who have been married for 37 years, started to look at moving house to be closer…
Kerry and her two children moved into her home in a quiet Bedfordshire village in November 2020. They’d recently moved from a women’s refuge with nothing and were being supported by Katy in our Wellbeing & Support team. Living next door to Kerry at this time was David, 73, who had several health issues. Kerry said: “David would have a…
Since her husband passed away, Chrissie, 72, had lived alone with her dog, Rosie, in a three-bedroomed bungalow near Quince Court in Sandy. Over a period of two years, Chrissie watched the new extension being built across the way, seeing an additional 25 modern apartments for independent living being built and a refurbishment to the existing Extra Care scheme. Chrissie…
