Plumber who offers free work to elderly hopes to help 1000 families this winter

A plumber who provides free work to elderly and disabled customers is aiming to raise enough money to help 1,000 families this winter.

James Anderson from Burnley runs a not-for-profit company which works with a network of plumbers and heating engineers to provide work for customers unable to afford it themselves.

Mr Anderson's work with Depher earned a boost earlier this year when he gave a 91 year old woman with leukaemia an invoice showing a charge of £0 for work on her boiler.

The image went viral on social media.

That led to a wave of publicity - but also led to an increase in requests for work from Depher.

Now Mr Anderson gets around 15 calls a day, and is asking for help from the public to raise £30,000 via a GoFundMe appeal, which he says will mean he can help another 1,000 families over the winter.

He told the Press Association about one call he had from a pensioner's carer this week:

Mr Anderson is encouraging more plumbers and heating engineers who want to help out to get in touch - they need to provide their labour free of charge, but Depher pays for parts and offers £30 expenses per job.

"The more people that come on board, the better it's going to be for us as a trade because we need to get rid of this stigma that a lot of people think that plumbers and heating engineers charge too much and they only do this so they can get the money," said Mr Anderson.