DUNDEE CHARITY hero Charlie Kean missed his target of ending a needy family’s freezing winter misery yesterday, but said: “I am only trying to help people.”
The Citizen of the Year pledged to have a new central heating boiler fitted at the home of Leslie Hastie (43) and her children Adam (8) and Aimee (5) after stepping in to cancel a Scottish Gas team who were due to do the work today.
It turned out that his engineer couldn’t produce a replacement boiler yesterday as he promised, but one will be delivered and installed at the family’s Rosebank Terrace home today when Scottish Gas had arranged to do the job.
The Courier was contacted by the family on Tuesday to highlight their plight in being without heating and hot water for five weeks after their old boiler was condemned.
The unemployed mother applied for a grant for a new one but Scottish Gas lost her request.
She was especially concerned for her children, who have both survived cancer. As the temperature fell to zero, they borrowed heaters from Charlie Kean, wore extra clothes to go to bed and washed with hot water boiled in a kettle.
After checking the situation, Scottish Gas quickly apologised, promised to fit a new boiler free of charge today and pay for any associated joinery works.
Then Charlie Kean contacted our office on Tuesday night to say he had cancelled the Scottish Gas team and would have a new boiler fitted in the Hasties’ home yesterday.
He would also arrange for the family to move to a hotel and have taxis ferry the children to and from school until they could return to a warm home.
Yesterday Ms Hastie said: “We couldn’t get a boiler today but have been told we will get one tomorrow. It seems boilers have to be ordered. Charlie has been good to us by arranging for the hotel and taxis, and it’s nice to be in a warm hotel.
“I understood that Scottish Gas would have ripped up floorboards and left holes in walls, and I couldn’t put up with all the upheaval at this time. That’s why I agreed to Charlie to have only a new boiler and for the rest of the work to be done when the weather’s better.”
Lucy Coyle of Scottish Gas said: “I am very sorry that we didn’t prioritise the installation of Ms Hastie’s new heating system given her family’s circumstances. We’ve spoken to Ms Hastie to apologise. We made it our number one priority to ensure Ms Hastie’s heating and hot water was restored as soon as possible.
“We had confirmed to her that we would be installing her central heating on Friday.
“However, we now understand that the job had been cancelled and a Dundee charity are installing the boiler on Thursday.
“We will now be looking into what went wrong in this case, to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Last night Charlie Kean said: “In everything I do I am only trying to help people. I’d thought Scottish Gas would only carry out a survey on Friday and not get round to replacing the boiler for several weeks.
“The family have suffered terribly and I couldn’t have them suffer any more so that’s why I stepped in. Boilers have to be ordered and I couldn’t get one delivered before Friday.”