I broke down a door to save my disabled colleague's life – then rebuilt his home

When school site manager Lee Smith realised his colleague Jeff hadn’t shown up for work, he knew something was wrong.

“It got to probably, I think, about eight o’clock. And yeah, it just didn’t feel right,” Smith told Big Issue. “With him, if he told you he was going to be in eight o’clock, he’d be signed in at half past seven.”

What followed not only saved Jeff’s life but earned Smith an unsung hero award at the 2025 Pearson National Teaching Awards.

Within 30 minutes of arriving on site, Smith and another colleague drove to Jeff’s home. His car was still in the driveway, but attending officers said they could not force entry. “They said they couldn’t, because they weren’t the correct police officers for the job,” Smith recalls. “Apparently that has to be a special unit.” When he asked what would happen if he broke in, they warned he could be arrested if Jeff pressed charges – and doubted he could get through the door.

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“That was a challenge,” Smith said. “So yeah, I kicked the door off the hinges.” Inside, police found Jeff upstairs in a diabetic coma.

Jeff was revived by paramedics and discharged the next morning. But he could not safely return to the property. Despite losing his leg in 2020, his home had never been adapted: there were external steps, narrow corridors and a spiral staircase “a bit like what you’d see in a nightclub”, making basic mobility impossible.

Smith decided to intervene.

“For the next six, seven weeks, me and another colleague of mine went through the whole of his house and just put all the adaptions in place for him,” he said. “We knocked all this wall down between his living room and kitchen and made it all open plan so he could get there in his wheelchair.

“We built him a walk in bathroom, walk in shower, yeah, and just give him a little bit of a better life.”

Their efforts highlight a long-standing crisis in accessible housing, one which Big Issue has previously covered. In 2009, England had 900,000 fully accessible homes for a disabled population of 11.4 million – an accessibility gap of 10.5 million. By 2022, the disabled population had risen to 16.1 million, while accessible homes increased only to 3.3 million. The gap widened to 12.8 million.

Jeff’s experience is far from rare – but thanks to Smith, its outcome is.

With the house now retrofitted, Jeff can navigate it independently. The team also ensured he could return to work with dignity. The academy spans a large site, and Jeff had previously pulled a trolley around the grounds. “So we decided to upgrade it a little bit and get him a little golf buggy he can now drive around and still do 90% of the jobs he used to do.”

Smith told Big Issue he was “honoured” to get the award – but said that “most people” would do what he did.

“I was always brought up thinking, if you could be anything in life, be kind. Yeah, and that stuck with us. If you can help someone, why would you not?”

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