A British couple have set up a GoFundMe page to fund their home renovation costs. Adam Stark and Ali Jennings, who met on Tinder just before the COVID-19 pandemic broke out and the country locked down, recently moved into a house in Staffordshire but say it’s “outdated” and that they spent their saved cash on buying the place so they can’t afford to modernize it. The fundraiser aims to bring in £2,500 ($3,400).
Adam Stark set up a GoFundMe profile asking for donations to renovate the outdated property he bought with fiancee Ali Jennings.https://t.co/7lW91zH58N
— The Daily Record (@Daily_Record) April 27, 2021
- Both Adam and Ali are key workers. Adam works for the National Health Service (NHS) delivering medical supplies to hospitals and treatment centers, while Ali is a technician at SpaMedica that treats NHS patients. They spent much of last year saving in order to be able to afford the deposit on the house, which was previously owned by an older gentleman and hadn’t been updated in roughly 30 years.
- In addition to money, they’d appreciate supplies. While they’ll need the cash for materials and labor, they’re also asking for anyone who may be getting rid of a perfectly good kitchen or bathroom to get in touch and possibly donate it to them so they can install it in their own house. Not only that, but they’d be grateful for any tradesmen who would donate their time to install the new materials free of cost.
- A friend suggested that Adam and Ali start the fundraiser. “I know with everything that is going on that there’s a lot of support for key workers at the moment and it was suggested to me by a friend to do this and I thought ‘why not?'” Adam revealed. “I can do a lot of the work myself but I will have to get other people in. It’s the bathroom and kitchen that mainly need doing. We want them redoing completely but we don’t mind if it is second-hand stuff.”
- The couple wants to make this a family home but it needs work. Adam admits that the house is beautiful as is the neighborhood, but the interior desperately needs updating to look more modern and they just don’t have the funds. “We moved here as the area is beautiful, it’s a lovely house, a lovely street and a lovely community. The house has not been neglected, it just needs updating. We saw the potential this house had and thought we could make it our family home. We saw a lot of houses in different areas and thought this was the right one,” he said. “If people were to donate things to the house or if tradespeople don’t have money but want to donate a day off to help us that would be amazing. We’d appreciate anything like that. We’d appreciate any help we can get. We don’t expect to get the whole house done for free but a little bit of help would be amazing.”
- The fundraiser has since been taken down. The pair only received a £10 donation before the abuse and criticism led GoFundMe to remove it. “I accept that was a bit cheeky. Sometimes you can be a bit cheeky and sometimes you can’t,” Adam told Staffordshire Live. “On this occasion, it didn’t work out. It’s been removed due to abuse that’s been received. The reaction’s been over the top. If it was this time last year, it would’ve been a different story. People were saying NHS workers deserve more than they get and there were fund-raising campaigns everywhere. I’m not saying I’m entitled and, granted, it was a bit cheeky asking.”
- Turns out, there’s more to this story than meets the eye. It was revealed a few days after the fundraiser made the headlines that Adam was actually a convicted scam artist after his involvement in a £500,000 car crash scam. He was sentenced to four years and nine months behind bars but insists he’s now put that behind him and is on the straight and narrow. “I regret setting up the appeal in hindsight. We weren’t expecting to be attacked over it. People have just thrown abuse around,” he said of the fundraiser.
