Abandoned house becomes 'home away from home' for CF patients

Click through the photo gallery above to see all the before and after photos.

In this Room To Improve special, Dermot Bannon teams up with Julian Benson, former judge on Dancing with the Stars, to convert an old Victorian house into four self-contained pods, for families of people with Cystic Fibrosis.

Ireland has the highest rate of CF per capita in the world, with around 1,400 adults and children living with the condition. Julian Benson is one of them.

When Julian was diagnosed with CF at the age of two, his mother was told by doctors that he probably wouldn't live to become a teenager. Thankfully, he beat the odds and has since gone on to become a successful choreographer and TV personality.

In 2022, the Julian Benson Foundation bought an abandoned Victorian redbrick in the south Dublin suburb of Rathgar. As founder of JBF, it was Julian’s dream to build a space that could cater for people with Cystic Fibrosis and their families, when they travelled to Dublin for treatment.

Patients can be in hospital for long periods of time which is very difficult for both the patient and the families.

Julian throughout his life has witnessed the low moments for patients while in hospital. For families to visit and spend time with their loved one is expensive and stressful. Julian wants a home away from home for the families, a "home with a hug".

Dream team Dermot Bannon and Patricia Power QS are on board for this massive project. The figure needed to complete this renovation is way beyond what Julian and the Foundation can afford.

And so begins the journey of getting volunteers and companies to come on board, to donate time, people, materials and resources for this mammoth project.

As the design process begins to implode, they all know that they have to work out their differences to complete this project on time.