Home dreams come true for happy family

Apr 4 2008 by Rebecca Edwards, Chester Chronicle

Home dreams come true for happy family

WINNING mortgage payments for a year has proved the perfect solution to a family of five’s cramped housing problem.

Glynis Spruce entered The Chronicle’s Mortgageforce competition hoping to complete a house extension to help her disabled brother become more independent.

After judges chose her as the competition winner she will have £6,000 less to pay out on bills.

Glynis, 43, and husband Jeff, 49, live with Glynis’s brother Gareth Coldeclough, 32, who has Down’s Syndrome, and have been his main carers since Glynis’s mother, Phyllis, died of cancer two years ago.

Also squeezed into their four-bedroom, one bathroom house in Churchway, Alvanley, are their three children James, 22, Joanne, 19, and Helsby High School pupil Jack, 14.

Three years ago they decided to build a self-contained flat onto the house to allow Phyllis and Gareth their own space.

Sadly, Phyllis was diagnosed with cancer and died when the flat was still a shell.

Glynis, a community care worker, said: “Things came to a halt when Mum died. Jeff managed to get Gareth into Petty Pool College at Sandiway and he takes him in every day and picks him up.

“Finances are tight as they are with most people but I work full time and we manage. We will finish the flat with a year free of mortgage payments and maybe then my brother would have his own space.”

Glynis works as a community care worker for Cheshire County Council to provide breakfast, lunch and dinner for elderly people in their homes and help them get up and go to bed.

She hopes that having a year free of mortgage payments will help the family save for a break in Devon.

She said: “Until a couple of years ago, Gareth had never been away on holiday so we took him to Devon and he loved it. It would be a such a treat for all of us to get away.

“We are ecstatic to have won, I never thought I would so I didn’t tell anyone I had entered. It was a big surprise this week.

“My mum always entered the competitions in The Chronicle, she would be chuffed to bits if she could see us now.”

Pete Chappell, mortgage adviser at Mortgageforce's new branch in Bridge Street, Chester, said: “We're delighted that this prize can help the Spruce family to improve their difficult home situation.

“We were very impressed with their determination to support the family, finally complete the extension and maybe even enjoy the chance to relax with a holiday. We wish them the best of luck!”