Meet The Couple Giving Free Home Makeovers To People Who’ve Lost Everything

When they registered CFA as a charity five years ago, the couple thought they’d be helping a few people a week, but things soon spiralled. They now have requests coming in to refurbish homes in London, Glasgow, Liverpool and Norfolk – however, with a small team of only nine volunteers, they aren’t able to travel that far. At the moment, they’re serving Bridgend County Borough.

“The need is there,” he adds, but it’s simply impossible for them to help that many people out of a tiny church in the Welsh valley.

Since 2013, CFA has received 1,200 furniture donations, 90 of which have been full house clearances. “We have a 98% recycle rate,” Julian says proudly. “We save about 30 tonnes a year from going to landfill – and there’s only four of us doing the manual labour.”

Julian has witnessed intense poverty during his time refurbishing people’s homes.

“We’re called into places a lot of people don’t see,” he says, describing children sleeping on the floor, clothes piled up and just two dinner plates for a family of five. “They’re too scared to tell people because they don’t want their children taken away,” he continues. “They live in a bad state. [But] we get our foot in the door, can see the conditions they’re living in, and can help.”