BIG-HEARTED builders have given up their time to make vital changes to a family home, allowing a paralysed father-of-four to return there.

East Linton-raised Rob Lamb suffered a severe spinal cord injury when he fainted due to low blood pressure at home in October last year.

The incident left the 58-year-old, whose parents Doris and Billy live on Haddington’s Riverside Drive, paralysed from the chest down, with the quantity surveyor spending months recovering at a rehabilitation centre.

But before Rob could return to his home in Solihull, near Birmingham – where he has lived for 25 years – the property needed specialist adaptations so he could live there safely.

After hearing about his situation, national construction charity Band of Builders stepped in, with volunteers surprising Mr Lamb by completing essential alterations in little over a week.

Mr Lamb met his wife Julie, who died suddenly in 2017, at Dunbar Grammar School, before the family moved to England in their 20s.

Rob Lambs home (before) has been transformed by a group of kind-hearted builders

Rob Lamb's home (before) has been transformed by a group of kind-hearted builders

Now he lives at the house with sons Callum, Gavin and Mackenzie, who plays for West Bromwich Albion FC’s youth team.

After seeing the finished project, Mr Lamb said: “It’s going to make my life so much easier.

“I am surprised at how much has been done really.”

He added that he was worried before coming home about “how difficult life would be” but the overhaul had made him “really happy”.

“It’s given me a big boost,” he said.

Getting emotional, he added it was “just brilliant” that so many volunteers, neighbours and strangers had come together to give him and his boys a helping hand at such a difficult time – and in the middle of a pandemic.

He added: “It’s at times like this you see how many good people there are in this world. I think I’ve met a lot of them today.

“I want to thank the builders for everything they’ve done.

“I haven’t seen anybody for five or six months other than nurses, doctors and other patients, but to see so many people gathered together, taking time to welcome you home, is great.

“I thought I would have to go into a care home first, but to come straight home to my own house is just brilliant.

“Everybody worked so hard, the nurses and carers, to make sure I could get out today, to be here with you guys – they’ve just been top-notch.”

Dozens of builders volunteered their time to help transformed Rob Lambs house.

Dozens of builders volunteered their time to help transformed Rob Lamb's house.

Band of Builders helps people in the industry battling illness or injury through practical projects.

Volunteers give up their time free of charge, while materials are donated by building firms, with Mr Lamb’s project sponsored by Tarmac Blue Circle.

Craig Cashmore, who led the build with fellow volunteer Tim Winch, said that Mr Lamb’s accident had made his house “completely inaccessible”, and the aim had been to get life back to “as normal as possible” for him.

He added: “Now we’ve built him a new downstairs wet-room, kitchen, bedroom, hallway, living room, everywhere, so now it’s all accessible.

“Even going into the back garden, where there’s new decking for him and a slope down to the pergola, so he can enjoy a bit of the garden.”

He added that, had the build been done privately, it would have taken more than a month.

The Lamb family handed over a cheque for £10,000 to Band of Builders.

The Lamb family handed over a cheque for £10,000 to Band of Builders.

“None of us are doing it for payment,” said Mr Cashmore.

“We’ll all work together to get it finished in time for Rob.”

A team of 60 tradespeople from across the country worked for eight successive days, from March 13 to 21.

Mr Cashmore said: “The feeling you get between everybody working here is fantastic, you couldn’t buy it.”

He added that neighbours had also chipped in with cups of tea, “feeding us and watering us”.

The Lamb family presented the charity with a cheque for £10,000 as a thank you for the volunteers’ hard work, which will help make sure other life-changing projects can go ahead in other parts of the country.