There’s probably not a better way to sum up South Holland’s response to the “Beast from the East” weather than that of Helen Chance and Malcolm Doubleday.
Thanks to kind-heated volunteer Malcolm, seven and a half months pregnant Helen beat last Thursday and Friday’s snow to make it to Pilgrim Hospital for her two final days of work as a nurse in the Intensive Care ward before maternity leave.
Malcolm, who had never met Helen before, works for the Welland and Deepings Internal Drainage Board braved the conditions in his 4×4 to take her from her Spalding home to Boston for the two night shifts.
He dropped her off at 6.30pm and then battled back through the blizzards to pick her up at 8am on both Thursday and Friday.
Helen, who is expecting her second child, said: “I can’t thank him enough for volunteering to take me to work in his own time.
“The hospital was struggling to get staff in and there was no way I could drive to work.
“This kind gentleman volunteered, also risking himself, in his own time to take me to work on a night shift and
collect me in the mornings two days running, which at seven months pregnant I was extremely grateful for.”
Malcolm explained that through work he’d volunteered to help if needed and got the call to help Helen.
“I would not have wanted her to be driving with being so heavily pregnant,” he said. “It took me two hours to get to
Boston and back but she needed to get to work.
Helen described her shifts as “even more busy than usual”.
Knowing this, Jason Holland of Clements Wholesale Fruit and Veg arranged for fresh fruit to be sent for hospital staff.
“We all have to use it over the years,” Jason said. “It gets some stick so we thought we’d do a good deed and give something back.”
With snow falling from Tuesday to Saturday, a host of volunteers went out of their way to clear roads and rescue several vehicles.
Local councils and emergency services publicly thanked the volunteers which included a number of local farmers.
Chris Carter, the chairman of the South Holland branch of the National Farmer’s Union (NFU), said: “Many villages would have certainly been cut off were it not for the efforts of all these volunteers.”
A number of people did become stuck as drifting snow closed roads and police urged people to only travel if absolutely necessary.
In South Holland, police were called out to 36 traffic related incidents on February 28 and 47 on March 1.
Insp Gareth Boxall thanked his staff and the community while saying it usually has to deal with five to ten traffic related incidents a day.
Long Sutton based recovery service Tears attended 179 call outs on Thursday and 168 on Friday.
That includes rescuing two gritters that became stuck in the snow.
Managing director Robert Tear said: “We were particularly quite busy with commercial vehicles in the South Holland area.
“A number of HGVs were stuck on various places on the likes of the A17 and A16.
“All our vehicles had somebody in on Thursday and Friday.”
Among the vehicles unable to carry out their work in the area were South Holland District Council’s refuse and recycling team who were forced to cancel collections. The authority asked residents not to leave their rubbish outside their doors.
Other council services were closed including public toilets in the area.
That caused problems for Holbeach business owners whose properties have no toilets so are reliant on the public conveniences.
One businesses owner, Yvonne Porter-Smith of Fabric Fae, said: “It’s outrageous. What are we supposed to do?”
The majority of schools in the area were also forced to close their doors due to the horrendous conditions with bus services, both public and private, being cancelled.
