BBC DIY SOS to rebuild widow's unfinished Kettering home

Lindsey and Shaun McAuley had started work on an extension to transform their Kettering home last year

Work has started to renovate a family home which was left uninhabitable when a man died from an aggressive form of cancer.

The BBC's DIY SOS team is due to transform Lindsey McAuley's home over the next week.

Her husband Shaun died two months ago with work on the property, in Kettering in Northamptonshire, left unfinished.

She said it was "heart-warming that there are still really kind, genuine people out there".

The DIY SOS team will be helped by a number of volunteer builders and tradespeople on the project.

Work started on Sunday and is expected to be completed in a week.

Mrs McAuley, who is a midwife, married ex-Royal Engineer Shaun on 12 December 2019.

The couple's house has been left uninhabitable following Shaun McAuley's death last year before building works could be completed

The couple had two children of their own, as well as two daughters from Mrs McAuley's previous marriage.

They had planned to have an extension built on the house in Pine Road in Kettering, Northamptonshire before installing the kitchen and bathroom themselves.

Work had started in May last year, but Mr McAuley fell ill in mid-September.

Initially he had an operation on his kidneys and bowel, but was then struck down by an aggressive cancer and died in November.

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Mrs McAuley said the house currently had "no kitchen, no bathrooms... it's not liveable at the moment".

The family is currently living with her parents and their oldest daughter has had to move out and is staying with her father.

One of the volunteers working on the house is Matt Garner from MG Electrical in Rothwell.

He told BBC Radio Northampton he had had a "bit of a tear in my eye" when he met the family.

DIY SOS presenter Nick Knowles said the McAuley family have had "an avalanche of bad luck".

Chris Frediani, one of the programme's core team of builders, added: "You could not script what this lady and her family is going through.

"We're doing a very small bit to help someone on the journey of recovery."