Plumber Who Offers Free Services To Elderly And Disabled Receives £80k In Donations

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A plumber who went viral for offering free services to elderly and disabled customers has received almost £80,000 in donations for his acts of kindness. 

James Anderson made headlines earlier this week after giving a 91-year-old leukaemia sufferer, who is on end of life support, an invoice totaling £0 for the repair of her boiler.

The caring plumber was hired by the elderly woman’s daughter, who explained her mother’s situation. Anderson then visited the house twice a day to depressurise the boiler and keep it working before fitting a new part on September 12.

Though the work should have cost around £480, Anderson told UNILAD he ‘didn’t want to put any more stress on [the family’s] situation’, so he decided not to charge the customers.

After news of the plumber’s generosity was shared online, people from across the world began sending donations to Anderson’s not-for-profit company, Depher. The organisation was set up in 2017 and carries out plumbing work free of charge for elderly and disabled customers.

According to The Sun, Anderson, from Burnley, said he has received £79,767 from kind strangers. The donations can go towards helping the company pay off the debt accumulated for their not-for-profit work, as well as allowing Depher to increase the amount of help they offer, which extends from free to discounted service.

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The plumber explained:

A lady from London rang up and put £2,000 in my personal bank account for me to pay towards my debt, and another gentleman rang up and put £1,000 in for me.

That’s £3,000 off the debt, which will keep the wolves from the door until I can get some more private jobs.

We don’t just have to do Lancashire now. I’m going to be ringing local engineers in the wider area.

I had to lay two of the lads off because I couldn’t afford it, then I had to go out and do the jobs myself as well as the paperwork, advertising, quotes and everything else. Now I can look at bringing them back.

While the news of Anderson’s kindness is allowing him to expand in his local area, the concept has also been picked up by companies across the world.

The plumber spoke of how workers have been getting in touch for advice on how to offer free services themselves, saying:

People are talking about doing it in America, France and Australia, and they’re all going to contact me to get advice and guidance as to how to do it in their countries.

Hopefully… we can bring all communities together for one common cause across the planet, so everybody who’s elderly and disabled, not just in the UK, can benefit from something like this in society.

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The 91-year-old customer and her daughter are just one of over 2,000 families Anderson and the Depher team have assisted through their generous initiative; helping out with everything from gas leaks to possible gas explosions, carbon monoxide leaks to faulty boilers.

Despite completing his work for the elderly woman earlier this month, the plumber has said she is now part of the Depher family ‘forever’.

He told UNILAD:

She is now under our care, on the trading side, until the day she doesn’t need us anymore. So for life. I hope she’s here for another 50 years, but she is now in our care. She is now part of our family. She’s part of the Depher family forever.

The world definitely needs more people like Anderson and his team!

Find out how you can support Depher here.

If you have a story you want to tell, send it to [email protected]. 

Emily Brown

Emily Brown first began delivering important news stories aged just 13, when she launched her career with a paper round. She graduated with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University, and went on to become a freelance writer and blogger. Emily contributed to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news as well as longer form features.