Edition 5
Friday, November 20 2020
w e n he
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Blackmore Vale
Fortnightly
FREE
Colonel’s final battle thwarted by jobsworths By Steve Keenan newsdesk@blackmorevale.net
An Army officer is fighting a double battle – against stage 4 cancer and council officers who stopped a raceagainst-time project to create a home for his family before he dies. Col Nick Carrell, 51, and wife Jilly bought a dilapidated house in Iwerne Minster with a view to restoring it for themselves and daughters Scarlett, 15, and Beatrice, 13. It would be their first non-Army home. The house had been lived in by the same person for 60 years before its owner died two years ago. It’s in desperate need of modernisation to make it habitable for the family, while space for palliative care was also factored in. When Nick’s condition worsened, Jilly appealed for help on the project and received a huge response, with more than 20 tradesmen and military friends volunteering to work for free. Yet after seven weeks of rapid progress – including opening up a Col Carrell with his daughters Scarlett and Beatrice in happier times
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