Man receives £80,000 in donations after fixing boilers for elderly people for free

A plumber claimed to have almost bankrupted himself after working for almost 3,000 elderly and vulnerable people free of charge, and he has been inundated with have almost £80,000 for his cause.

James Anderson, 52, from Burnley went viral after a bill he placed for a 91-year-old woman with leukaemia came to £0.00 made its way online.

The invoice read: "Callout to Boiler high pressure and two leaks... lady is 91 years of age acute leukaemia end of life care.

"Amount 0.00.

"No charge for this lady under any circumstances. We will be available 24 hour to help her and keep her as comfortable as possible.

"Depher CIC."

The 52-year-old raised money for vulnerable people in need of his services in Lancashire using Crowdfunder and GoFundMe and ever since his receipt went viral, he said he has received donations from across the world

Anderson, who runs a not-for-profit plumbing business , Depher admitted that such bills once brought him precariously close to bankruptcy.

(Picture: SWNS)

He said:

I was on the verge of it all falling apart but I pulled it back and continued with the fight.

One day, I would love to make my company national.

I would love for there to be a helpline that anyone over 65 or who is disabled can call and would be able to receive free plumbing.

It would be great if we could get some government funding. A national helpline would be the dream.

Anderson added that people from “America, France and Australia” have contacted him and asked him for advice on how they can launch similar schemes.

Hopefully… we can bring all communities together for one common cause across the planet, so everybody who’s elderly and disabled, not just in the UK, can benefit from something like this in society.

(Picture: SWNS)

Anderson confirmed he had received £79,767 in donations since Monday.

“We don’t just have to do Lancashire now. I’m going to be ringing local engineers in the wider area," he said.

We’ve had companies say they’ll do all the advertising for us including a website, all free of charge. This is just the beginning of something that can be global.

(Picture: SWNS)

A lady from London rang up and put £2,000 in my personal bank account for me to pay towards my debt, and another gentleman rang up and put £1,000 in for me,” he added.

That’s £3,000 off the debt, which will keep the wolves from the door until I can get some more private jobs.

That way I don’t have to touch the funding, which I don’t want to do.

HT SWNS

More: The Ukraine president trolled every world leader with a hilarious WhatsApp presentation

More: Junko Tabei: Google Doodle celebrates first woman to conquer Mount Everest