DIY SOS star Nick Knowles and his team are back to help Dan Richards tonight, who was paralysed in a freak accident at the beach.

Dan, 36, was left wheelchair bound after a New Year’s Day swim at Langland Bay in Wales turned into a living nightmare.

The keen surfer has been unable to go upstairs in his three-bed terrace for almost a year. Dan is also unable to access his garden due to a 4ft drop.

But Nick and his team of DIY experts are determined to change his life. Here’s everything we know about tonight’s episode of DIY SOS, including how the workforce fitted a lift into Dan’s 100-year-old property.

DIY SOS: How did Dan break his neck?

Dan, a gas engineer, was left paralysed following a freak accident on New Year’s Day. He had spent most of the day moving in to his and partner Anna Thomas’ first home together. But abandoning their van on a whim, they headed to the beach for a swim.

Dan explains on DIY SOS: “I went into the water as normal and went into a wave; not a particularly big wave but it dropped on me. I knew it was serious straight away and then everything changed after that.”

Anna adds: “I just heard a voice shouting out, ‘Help me!’ I knew then I had to get there quickly, as he had gone under and wasn’t coming back up. Thank God there were people there to help. The coastguard organised everything. I wouldn’t be here without them.”

Dan was whisked to hospital, where Anna was taken into a family room. She says: “The gentleman looked at me and said, ‘He’s paralysed from the neck down. He’s broken his neck. He can’t move anything’. I could hear people celebrating because it was New Year’s Eve, laughing and joking. And I was being told the worst thing in the world.”

Dan had life-saving treatment on his neck injuries, which included a C5 burst fracture and fractures to C4 and C6 of the spinal cord. Although he is currently unable to walk, Dan hopes he will regain the ability one day with the help of physiotherapy and treatments.

What did Nick and the DIY SOS team do to Dan’s house?

Dan and Anna’s home underwent an extensive makeover by the DIY SOS team. Interior designer Gabby Blackman says in the show: “It is the least suitable and least accessible house we have worked on.”

Dan had been living in the downstairs lounge since being discharged from hospital, where he had been for 10 months. He had also fallen out of his wheelchair and suffered concussion due to several steps at the front door.

But Gabby adds: “We are going to put a lift in, but he can have his bedroom and bathroom upstairs.”

Thanks the help of an army of local volunteer tradesmen and women, all the doorways are widened. A ramp is added to the front of the house and a big ramp put in the back garden. A new raised patio also gets rid of the 4ft drop.

Dan’s kitchen is made accessible, with the inclusion of a hob that can move up and down. In the bedroom, the couple are given an electric sit-up, sit-down bed and plenty of storage for medical equipment. The new bathroom is also designed as a wet room.

The biggest addition to the property is the lift, which is built in a car park across the road. It means Dan can finally get up and downstairs in his own home.

DIY SOS: Gabby’s tears

Unfortunately, the age of the property means Nick and the DIY SOS team suffer a delay to the project. Previous renovation work on the house by the old occupiers is uncovered and deemed structurally unsafe. This means the ceiling has to be repaired, which eats into their week-long time frame.

Gabby ends up in tears as she speaks to Nick towards the end of the build. She admits she’s had no sleep, crying: “I’m at the panic phase… I can only see the problems at the moment.” Nick gives Gabby a hug, as she tells him: “I just want it to be perfect.”

Dan and Anna’s reaction

The couple are left speechless when they return to their newly-transformed home. Dan shares his gratitude to the DIY SOS team for giving him his “dignity” and “independence”. He says: “Now I can live.”

The lift shocks them the most. Dan, almost rendered speechless, says: “I haven’t been upstairs in my house in a year. I didn’t think I would ever get upstairs again…utter disbelief. Thank you.”

Anna also bursts into tears when she sees the electric bed. She tells Nick: “I’d been coming home to this house on my own every night when he was in hospital and I didn’t think he’d ever be up with me. Ever. It’s just amazing.”

The couple go outside to thank Nick’s DIY SOS experts and the army of local volunteers. Dan says: “We are so grateful for what you’ve done. You’ve given us something back we thought we’d lost. That’s hard to bring to words. You’re superheroes, the lot of you.”

In highly emotional scenes, Nick then brings in the team of coastguards who helped Dan on the day of his accident. Dan tells the crowd: “That was the worst day of my life. But thanks to these guys, it wasn’t the last day.”

Read more: DIY SOS: Nick Knowles ‘gives independence’ to young Isla as BBC show returns for a new series

DIY SOS starts at 8pm on BBC One on Friday October 10, 2025