Supported living facility given ‘This Morning make-over’

During a This Morning phone-in with interiors queen Kelly Hoppen back in May, Tom Redmond called to seek some expert advice ahead of him and his best friend Isaac moving into a supported living facility for the first time.
Tom, who has cerebral palsy, and Isaac, who has down syndrome, spoke to Alison, Dermot and Kelly, after being helped to contact the show by Tom’s mum Sarah. The pair touched the hearts of those in the studio and as a result, Dermot explained they wanted to go a step further to help transform the first home.

In a clip on today’s show, viewers saw Kelly explain: “A few months ago, we at This Morning were lucky enough to meet Tom and Isaac. Today, that’s exactly what I’m doing, I’m in Northampton to transform Tom and Isaac’s amazing new space. I’m going to turn it into the magic that they deserve.”

Leaving Kelly and her team to work on the home and add some of Tom and Isaac’s own personalities to the space – Kelly revealed that Tom and Isaac had told her “they liked the colour blue and wanted it to feel like their bachelor pad!”

Tom and Isaac’s supported living facility before the renovation

Kelly and the This Morning team went on to transform their living space, the kitchen and the bedrooms. Delighted with the results, Tom said: “Wow. Thank you Kelly!” as he and Isaac looked around for the first time.

Tom’s mum Sarah explained: “Amazing, I mean we never dreamt Kelly herself would come and to think this morning, it was just a shell. Just incredible. More than we could have ever hoped for.”

Today, Tom, Isaac, Sarah and Kelly joined Alison and Dermot in the This Morning studio to tell them all about the experience. Kelly revealed: “Honestly, it’s been one of the best things I’ve ever done in my life and Tom and Isaac are just the most amazing, amazing people and I hope we’ll be friends forever. To walk in and see this incredible space that Bobby had sort of put together for all of you and then the ITV This Morning team to make it happen!”

In response to what his favourite part of the home is, Tom said: “I love all of it!” 

Tom and Isaac’s supported living facility after the renovation

Emotionally opening up on the impact it will have on all of their lives, Sarah explained: “I think their independence will really grow and as parents, it’s easy to over do for them and actually, they’re quite capable of doing things for themselves, so I think that’s really important. Just making their own decisions, with guidance of course. I think for us as parents, it’s going to be a massive, massive change… it’s absolutely the right thing to be doing for sure.

“We started this process with Respond Care about three years ago and I broached the subject of whether or not they could possibly support them, because the boys both go there for respite, and for somebody [Tom] in a wheelchair chair, there is nowhere for supported living. Respond Care said to us, ‘We will actually build something for him or buy a house and adapt it’. That is amazing and we are so lucky, I do get how lucky we are. It absolutely is stunning.”

Tom’s mum Sarah did however explain that the friends haven’t yet been able to move into their home as they haven’t been able to secure “a full set of carers that can cover the full 24-hour care that they’re going to need” but were “rapidly looking for more”.

This Morning airs weekdays from 10am on ITV1, STV and ITVX, STV Player