Mr and Mrs Edgar had struggled for many years living in a property near Kinross, which was unsuited to the complex needs of their daughter Hollie. Every day they struggled to help Hollie with the simplest of tasks, such as carrying her to the toilet or bedroom. Despite their cry for help, Perth and Kinross Council were unable to find them an adapted house that could cater to these daily challenges.
As fate would have it, it was Mrs Edgar’s occupational therapist that stepped in to help. She knew The Gannochy Trust had recently built a new Lifetime Neighbourhood in Perth, with houses and bungalows adapted to cater for people with a range of needs. She approached the Trust in 2019, and by March 2020, a specially adapted house was found for the Edgars on Gannochy Road in Perth. The move has been nothing short of transformative for the Edgars.
Mrs Edgar said: “Getting a house at The Gannochy Trust has been life changing. We’re not carrying our daughter up the stairs anymore, we now have a wet room and a downstairs bedroom which has tracking to help our daughter get in and out of bed. She also has the full space downstairs so she’s not in the one spot all the time. It’s been brilliant for us.”
One of the guiding principles behind The Gannochy Trust’s new Lifetime Neighbourhood is to provide rented accommodation to a wide range of people, from small families to single people of all ages, including those with additional support needs. This was important to the Trust’s founder A.K Bell, who was a well-known philanthropist, and developed the original Gannochy housing estate back in the 1930’s.
Houses such as the Edgar’s are ‘homes for life’ with the flexibility to adapt to tenant’s needs as their circumstances change. Each house has several features to aid mobility, such as open plan living areas with wide doorways, level access at all entrances, built in provision for bathroom conversion to wet rooms, large hall areas and wide doorways for wheelchair access. Each house also has a clear view through the rooms to increase the sense of orientation and natural daylight. These features have been life changing for the Edgars.
Mrs Edgar said: “The new house is brilliant for space. It has a nice garden and the neighbours are very nice and friendly. Everyone speaks to you when they walk past and people are getting to know our daughter. We see this as a lifetime house, which means when you have a young adult with disabilities, we’ve got no more worries about what’s going to happen in the future.”
By providing a house which has the flexibility and facilities to cater for the Edgar’s complex needs now and into the future, the family feel settled and secure in the knowledge that Gannochy Road is truly a home for life.
Hollie Edgar enjoying some down time
New tracking system to help Hollie in and out of her bed
HRH Princess Anne visiting the Edgars in summer 2021