“Our wonderful experience with Cheryl Carter and Every Home Matters”

By Mr D (Merton)

During the late summer of 2015, we were notified by our landlord that he would be selling his property that my wife and I had rented from him for 11 years. Since I was undergoing radiation therapy for cancer, and my wife had just had her knee replaced, we were in no condition to move or vacate. We applied for council and charitable housing immediately, but none was available. The landlord extended his plans to help accommodate us, but the house was sold in early December, and the new owner wanted to renovate completely. We had no option to continue our rental of our home.

After waiting for 9 months, we finally secured a nice but small apartment at Haig Housing on Green Lane in Morden. The new apartment was freshly redecorated and lovely, but it was less than half the size of the house we were renting.  We contacted several charities for ideas and help, including Age UK in February of 2016.

Patricia at Age UK in Merton kindly referred us to Cheryl Carter at Every Home Matters. Patricia gave her a glowing review, and told us that Cheryl was a specialist in helping older and disabled people move home. We agreed a meeting and Cheryl took an inventory of our home. We had a further two meetings, extremely helpful and reassuring. It was clear to us that Cheryl was extraordinary, and could help us sort, pack and move our home to Haig.

Over the next two months Cheryl was a godsend… She was so well-organised, supportive and resourceful, and so kind to us. The move was extremely hard for us, but she arranged that very few of our possessions needed to be discarded. She found a number of charities to take the items we could not keep, and arranged removal of them as we became ready. Several times per week she was with us or on the phone, helping us to move.

There is honestly no way we could have done this without her. I had two surgeries, and my wife had her second knee replaced during The Week of the Move (since our operations had been delayed to the same week, unfortunately). We finally finished our move in mid-May 2016, and we continue to maintain a warm friendship with her. We offer our highest praise and thanks for her wonderful support and kind support during a very difficult time in our lives.