Deaf couple’s Southampton home rebuilt by DIY SOS volunteers

A profoundly deaf couple, whose home was left unsafe by unfinished building work, will see it being transformed by hundreds of volunteers when the latest episode of DIY SOS is broadcast.

Ahmed and Rifat Ali, from Bitterne in Southampton, lost £72,000 on a ground floor extension which was halted and later condemned.

The couple and their three children were left living upstairs, unable to use their kitchen or garden, until the hit BBC show’s team rebuilt the house last October.

The episode, which reveals technology designed to help the couple run their home, will be on BBC One and iPlayer at 20:00 BST.

DIY SOS designer Gaby Blackman said: “All we hear about in our community is division and that is not what we found. We found a united, kind, warm community all really just trying to help a family in need.”

More than 150 tradespeople turned up on the first day of the build, with presenter Nick Knowles saying the team had to do “six months work in about seven days”.

Before work began, Ahmed, speaking through an interpreter, told volunteers: “It’s been quite a dark period and I just feel like this is the light at the end of the tunnel.”