A home from home gifted to King's Lynn NHS ambulance worker
An ambulance worker in Lynn has been gifted free accommodation by a generous landlord to help protect her high-risk family during coronavirus.
Bethanie Hutchinson, 24, from Swaffham, works as an urgent-tier ambulance care assistant across West Norfolk and Fakenham.
She normally lives with six family members at home in Swaffham, but with both an asthmatic and diabetic mother, and a high-risk asthmatic father, she moved into the living room to minimise contact.
Beth said: “Everyone is working from home and I’m coming into contact with COVID patients at work. My parents were worried so I moved into the living room and started showering at work. It’s all to help them, it’s a horrible situation to be in because you don’t even know if you’ve got it until it’s too late.
“At work we take every precaution and wear full PPE to COVID patients, but you never know if you could be carrying it, it’s always a worry.”
Beth had looked into finding alternative accommodation but found prices too expensive, so when a friend sent her the Facebook post shared by estate agent Pardip Choat, she contacted him straight away.
Mr Choat, who owns Pine Tree Lodge in Pentney Lakes, was forced to close the site as England entered the second lockdown. Rather than rent the house to construction workers as allowed by lockdown regulations, Pardip decided to offer the house to NHS workers for free during November.
He said: “During the first lockdown we thanked NHS workers by clapping. That’s nice, but it’s not a pay rise and we all know that the NHS deserve more than that.
“I can’t give them a pay rise, but I can give them my house as my way of saying thank you. I placed a post on to a few Facebook groups announcing that I was giving November for free to NHS workers that needed it.
“Bethanie called me and explained that she worked at the ambulance station in Lynn. She lives with her parents and siblings and was looking to rent a place locally, as she didn’t want expose her family to risk from Coronavirus.
“After hearing her story, I booked her in, and she now has the whole place to herself for free. From her reaction on the phone, I don’t think she believed it, until the official reservation emails were sent. Thank you Bethanie and thank you NHS.”
Bethanie picked up the keys on Tuesday and was overwhelmed to find a basket of chocolates and prosecco waiting for her as a gift.
She said: “I’m so grateful. Staying here has given me such peace of mind and my family are relieved, especially my dad. They can finally breathe and have their living room back. This place is huge, it’s so nice, it even has a hot tub! It’s unreal, such a lovely gesture.
“Last week, I finished a shift three hours late after a 15 hour shift, then had to shower at work so I wouldn’t risk my family. Now that I’m here, I can pick up even more shifts at work knowing that I’m not coming into contact with anybody.”
