Britain’s kindest plumber has just claimed a ‘local hero’ award — and netted a £1,000 bonus in the process. James Anderson, 52, won plaudits earlier this year when he bought a freezing family £170 worth of food and energy.
On a routine call-out, James, from Burnley, was so shocked to see the poverty the family were living in, he decided to act. “You walk in and you’re talking to them, and you can see your breath while you’re talking to them,” he said at the time. “They’ve got children there.
“They’re confused because they don’t know what’s going on. The children are like: ‘Why is this happening? Why am I cold? Why can’t my mum and dad keep me warm? Why can’t they put the boiler on? Why can’t they give me a meal.’"
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James’ firm, DEPHER, which stands for Disability and Elderly Plumbing and Heating Emergency Repair, started out in 2017. He has helped hundreds of people since then.
And now, he has won the SGS Engineering Local Hero Award 2022. It recognises ‘hero’ tradespeople in their area who have gone above and beyond to help their community with their generosity.
James, it’s fair to say, has swept the award, netting 70 percent of the vote. Speaking upon receiving the award, James said: "Thank you very much for nominating myself and DEPHER for this fantastic award, it is overwhelming, and it is humbling.
“From a business point of view, the people we help may not be family, we may not be blood, but we will continue to treat them as family, and we will always be here. As long as we have the power to deliver (our services), you will never ever be alone, and you will never be in the dark.
“This is for the people that we supply, the people that we offer support services to, and awards like this give us further power to help them.”
Typical of his generosity, James said that 'a lot of families’ would benefit from the £1,000 cash prize.
James also won a Special Recognition award at the Pride of Manchester awards earlier this month. He told guests at the ceremony his key motivation. He and Babs lost their baby son William in 2011 when he was just 16 weeks old.
“I promised him, that day we turned off the machine, that I would be the man he would not grow up to be. I know that he is up there, on a cloud, kicking his feet and saying ‘nice one dad’.
