When hit TV show DIY SOS: The Big Build came to Sussex to renovate the home of a local resident left paralysed after a devastating cycling accident, Rabbit Group was only too happy to respond to their call for help.
Two years ago, mother-of-four Amanda Newton was out training on her bike for an Iron Man challenge when her brakes failed on the treacherously steep Bury Hill, near Arundel. Travelling at 40 mph, she lost control and smashed into a signpost, which catapulted her into bushes. Amanda, who lay injured for two hours before being found by another cyclist, sustained 11 broken bones, a punctured lung, and snapped her collar bone and her back. The accident left her paralysed from the waist down.
After six months at Stoke Mandeville spinal unit, where she underwent two 12-hour back operations and rehabilitation, a now wheelchair-bound Amanda returned to a house that was now unsuitable for her physical needs, and faced the prospect of having to move from their beloved family home. That’s when DIY SOS Big Build came to the family’s rescue.
With the volunteer help of businesses across Sussex, the DIY SOS team and an army of volunteers set about transforming the family’s house into wheelchair-friendly home, with an adapted kitchen, wet room and bedroom, along with a ramp into the garden and widened doorways throughout.
Rabbit Group is proud to have donated skips, waste management services, a 1.9t Digger and a tracked wheel barrow to the Big Build project and wish Amanda and her family every happiness in their ‘new’ home.
