DIY SOS finale review: Dream home created for brave nurse Laura and family in Waterford
Laura Sheridan on DIY SOS: The Big Build Ireland
If anyone is deserving of a visit from the DIY SOS: The Big Build Ireland team, it’s former Nurse of the Year Laura Sheridan.
The Waterford mum-of-three was the focus of Sunday evening’s finale after her father applied to the show on her behalf. Laura was diagnosed with stage 3 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, and received her treatment while caring for her four-year-old twin boys, Noah and Joshua, who have a form of autism.
“She was diagnosed with Lymphoma, and she was absolutely crushed,” her dad Skippy told presenter Baz Ashmawy, describing how she learned of her diagnosis soon after finding out her sons were autistic. He said he hopes her transformed home will give her “a fighting chance”.
Showing Baz around her home, Laura pointed out the dangers it held for her children, from them climbing out windows and over the banister, to how they have broken bones in the past. “They want to jump off everything,” she said.
Laura has tried to make her home safe for her children, but fears that the measures are too much in a home. “I feel by trying to make the house safe for them, I've made it more like a prison. I made their world very small.”
Laura, who is now in remission, said she was “naïve” about how her cancer would affect her. “I said to my parents, ‘it's the good cancer. I'm really lucky, I have good cancer. It's gonna be fine.’ How naive I was because it's been so hard.”
As her sons usually get up during the night. Laura says she doesn't know the last time she slept through the night. “I’ve been tired for a long time,” she said, adding her daughter, six-year-old Izzy, also struggles to sleep due to the same worries.
Over nine days, the Sheridans moved out and the DIY SOS team of volunteers moved in, working through nights, ripping out rooms and reconfiguring the house to better suit the family’s needs. Noah and Joshua were given a sensory-friendly bedroom beyond anything they could have imagined, complete with climbing wall and monkey bars for all their active needs.
Izzy’s bedroom became a haven for her, plus a fox mural in the colourful back garden, inspired by the Waterford Walls project, was a treat for the art-loving child.
For Laura, one of the most impactful changes was the addition of a massive window overlooking the garden so she could watch her children from the kitchen and be sure of their safety.
“I know this sounds weird, but this glass is life-changing,” she told Baz, explaining the previous summer she asked them to stay inside as she was “so tired” after chemo and didn’t have enough energy to watch over them. “The weather was so lovely and I felt guilty about it. But now they can do whatever they want.”
Most importantly, she confirmed her home “doesn't feel like a prison anymore” and that she felt she could be at ease there. “I can see them getting older safely here, which was something I couldn't see before.”
Speaking to the volunteers who helped them, Laura told them they brought magic into her house. “I hope when you go home tonight, your families know how special you are because not everyone could or would do what you have done here.
"If you were ever in trouble, I would do the same for you because you have helped me in my hardest time. And I swear for the rest of my life I will never ever forget it.”
