“Your help made a real difference” - The Bailey family

When Graham Bailey’s home in Ludlow was severely flooded in June, his family had no choice but to move into temporary accommodation. Since then, their empty home has been flooded a further two times, in July and December.

“It’s March 2008 now, and we’re still in temporary accommodation. The first flood in June was bad enough but, with the second one, we had muddy water three feet deep throughout the house and it stayed there for days, causing irreperable damage.

“Parts of our house are 200 years old and the builders had to strip all the plaster away right down to the bricks. All the floors were destroyed and we lost everything we couldn’t run out of the house with. When the initial flood hit, we stored everything we manage to save in our outbuilding, which stayed safe and dry above the water line.

“But then the second flood in July reached significantly higher and we lost everything in the outbuilding as well, including all our kid’s old drawings and schoolwork. There were lots of memories in there, so it’s very sad.

A real difference

“The Red Cross’ money has been very useful because our insurance doesn’t cover any extra heating costs and our temp acc has cost an absolute fortune to heat – about £700 since we moved in. We’re also further away from the town now, so there are additional travelling costs to take into account. Most importantly, though, we need additional funds in order to improve our flood defences for the future.

“I’m actually out of work at the moment so the Red Cross money has made a real difference. The flood has had a huge impact on our lives and I actually stopped working, both to project manage the rebuilding efforts and support my family. We have a daughter away at university at the moment so it is quite difficult.”