Edinburgh housing: Calum Grevers who has muscular dystrophy smashes target in fight for accessible home

An Edinburgh man who has muscular dystrophy is one step closer to an independent life after his fundraising campaign for a new home smashed its £30,000 target.

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Calum Grevers has been raising awareness of the lack of accessible housing across the Capital since he first applied for his own home in January 2020, at which point it became clear that it would take him years to be able to leave his parents’ home and embark on a life of his own.

The 28-year-old set up a GoFundMe page in December 2020 to allow him to raise money for a first home deposit and any alterations which would need to be carried out.

Calum Grevers launched a campaign in 2020 to help him move out of his parents' house and live an independent life.

The Evening News spoke to Calum in November last year, at which point he had raised just shy of £20,000, and just two months later, he has reached his goal.

“It was going at a slow and steady pace for a while and then I think the first week of the year it just kind of exploded,” he said.

“I went from about £20,000 to £30,000 in about six days. I’m still absorbing the news a bit but I’m grateful to everybody who has donated. It was a good start to the year.”

Calum is now planning to start the house-hunting process in spring and aims to be settled into a new home by the end of summer.

“I think it will take me a few months to find a property that is suitable for me,” he said.

“It will need to be ground-floor level and may need to be adapted to be accessible.”

Calum hopes the money will help him secure a ground floor flat which he can then adapt to be open plan and to include a wet-floor shower room and a second bedroom for his PA to use. The computer science graduate also wants to create a space in which he can work from home.

“It’s quite exciting because it feels like the whole nature of my life will kind of change,” he said.

“I’ll be running the whole show, I’ll be in my own home and adapting things to my own needs. I’ll be in control of the process and any alterations.

“It’ll be really good for my personal space and my relationship with my parents. I’m 28 and I want to move on to the next stage of my life like most other adults.”

As well as having given him the chance to buy his own home, Calum’s campaign has also helped to raise awareness of the difficulties faced by those in need of accessible homes across the city.

“I’m very grateful to all those people who donated especially in the middle of a pandemic, but it also shouldn’t be necessary to have to fundraise for a home,” he said.

“The fact that disabled people want to live independently as much as possible, there should be something in place to allow disabled children to later live as disabled adults in the city.

“There should be a more joined up way of doing that.”

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