Yahoo News Community support officer surprises 90-year-old veteran by cleaning and decorating his home
A kindhearted community support officer made sure a 90-year-old war veteran had a clean home for Christmas by scrambling a team together to help tidy his flat.
Neighbourhood PCSO Shaun Lee first met Leonard, who served in the Royal Artillery for almost 30 years, back in November after visiting his flat in North East Lincolnshire.
He was struck by the poor conditions Leonard was forced to live in, and the flat was said to be in an “extreme state of disrepair”.
PCSO Lee said that every room of the small apartment was “completely cluttered and filled with rubbish”.
“I made contact with numerous people from different organisations and companies to try and put arrangements in place so that Leonard could have a clean and safe place to live,” PCSO Lee said.
“During this time, I went back to see Leonard and sadly found him a little unwell in bed.
“A paramedic quickly attended and together we managed to get Leonard into an assisted living facility while he recovered, and she also arranged for his pet cockatiel Baby to be temporally re-homed, which gave us the opportunity to sort his house out for him.”
PCSO Lee then continued making enquiries to try to sort out Leonard’s home, and found that the Veterans Still Serving (VSS) organisation was keen to help.
“Within a few days, VSS had spread the word about Leonard and managed to do all sorts to help him, from organising new furniture to making sure he had opportunities to socialise,” PCSO Lee said.
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“A local cleaning firm cleaned the flat top to bottom and a carpet supplier fitted new carpets.
“Once the flat was clean, a couple of my colleagues and I teamed up with a number of volunteers from VSS and dedicated a day of our own time to decorating it.
“Throughout all this time I kept in contact with Leonard, visiting him with my colleague Caroline and keeping him up-to-date with the progress on his home while he got better.
“The flat is now completed and I am pleased to share that Leonard was able to move back in, just in time for Christmas.”
“In his time of need people were there to help, and Leonard is a completely different person now to the one I met in November, of which I am forever grateful, as I’m sure Leonard is also.”
