Lights burning bright for Sean with community support

Lights burning bright for Sean with community support

A Heacham man who was left paralysed from the waist down after an accident at work last October has defied the odds of survival and has opened a shop on Lynn Road in Hunstanton.

Sean Garrett, who has worked as an electrical contractor for thirty years, has opened up a shopfront for his business Lighthouse Contract Ltd., already a fifteen-year-old established business in its own right.

Lighthouse Contract Ltd. is a national business with around forty personnel working all over the country and is based in Hunstanton. They supply to the general public and to traders and sell goods such as traditional and LED bulbs, sockets, plumbing supplies, electrical appliances and more. His daughter Chelsea maintains the day-to-day running of the shop.

Sean said: “We’re doing something like 3,000 to 4,000 orders a week through the internet systems. We had all the stock and the opportunity came up to open a shop. The position we’re in is ideal with the passing traffic and we’ve only been open 6-8 weeks and it’s already booming.”

On October 2nd 2018 Garrett fell from a step ladder whilst working on a new build and fell through an open floor fourteen feet down onto concrete. He suffered catastrophic injuries: he needed four screws inserted into his back and he suffered a massive skull fracture that damaged the front of his brain.

He also damaged his internal organs and suffered fractured ribs. He was comatose for four weeks and then transferred to a specialist spinal rehabilitation centre in December and was released home on February 13th of this year. He has no memory of the first six weeks after his accident and his family was told during this time that he only had a 10% chance of survival.

Despite this adversity, Garrett maintain a keep calm and carry on mentality: “I’m working harder now than I did before. I’m still running the business, I’m still doing electrical work, I’m still carrying on with everything.”

“My frustration is that when we done the work I couldn’t even put a screw in. I can be there and oversee but I can’t do much. I’ve always worked very hard—14 and 16-hour days 7 days a week. But I play hard as well, and I’m going to carry on living that life.”

With help from MP Henry Bellingham, Garrett recently managed to get the kerb dropped at the end of his road so that he can access the roads with his wheelchair. He is hoping that eventually there will be more dropped kerbs throughout Heacham to make the village more accessible for other wheelchair users.

Garrett’s daughters Chelsea and Danielle set up a JustGiving page after the accident and a fundraising football match in April added £4,400 to the pot which enabled him to buy a wheelchair.

Garrett emphasises how the support that he and his family have received over the last couple of months has been invaluable: “The support we had was pretty incredible. We had I think over 300 people go in my shop in Hunstanton to ask to help my family. The Islamic Centre in King’s Lynn have been absolutely incredible.”

“I’ve had people all over the country check up on me. People donated to my crowdfunding who I don’t even know. It’s not really about me, it’s about the amount that people have done for me and my family.”

Lighthouse Contract Ltd. is located on Lynn Road in Hunstanton (opposite the police station) and is open Monday to Friday 7.30am to 4:30pm and Saturday 8am to 4.30pm.

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