A plumber from Burnley has gone viral after he refused to take payment from a 91-year-old woman with acute Leukemia. The invoice for the work was shared on Twitter earlier this week which stated on it ’no ‘no charge for this lady under any circumstances’.
‘Will be available 24-hours to help her and keep her as comfortable as possible,’ the invoice read, showing James Anderson, the plumber had been called out to fix high pressure and two leaks in her boiler. As the lady was receiving end of life care, the father-of-five chose not to charge her for his services.
The post has since received over 100,00 likes and drawn attention to his company, Depher Community CIC, which is a not-for-profit plumbing and emergency heating company. Having previously owned a private business, James decided to start Depher after seeing other elderly people mistreated by engineers.
He now helps deliver life-saving support to elderly people across Lancashire, hoping to take his company nationwide if they raise enough money from public donation. Starting the company in 2017, James has accumulated £8,000 worth of debt doing not-for-profit work – however insists the debt is under control.
‘A lot of people close to me ask: why are you getting yourself in to debt? Why are you doing this? To me, debt is debt,’ he told the Metro, ‘I would rather owe some money to somebody and another person be alive and happy and safe. It’s an ethos that’s in my heart and it will always stay there.’
‘I don’t want any person who is elderly and disabled in this country, in this day and age, to die or suffer because of a cold home or a lack of funding to repair the boiler,’ he continued, ‘It shouldn’t be happening – that number should be down to zero. Simple as that.’
In 2018, it was reported that winter deaths in England and Wales were at their highest since 1976 with 50,1000 excess deaths in winter 2017. Women and people aged over 85 were the most likely to die. This week, it was reported that 2.53 million households across the UK are living in fuel poverty as rising energy costs put them below the poverty line.
Of course, the winter fuel allowance is meant to help elderly people pay to for these rising costs. But where it is clearly failing, people like James are stepping in. Currently, Depher’s crowdfunding initiative is listed with a goal of £4000, for which they have now raised £3514 with 125 supporters. If you wish to become one of them, click here to donate.
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