Please Help Tommy & Layla's House Fire Life Rebuilding Fund

Hello Everyone,

My name is Doug Jobling, from Hull, UK and I am wishing to raise funds for my two children Layla (13) and Tommy (11).

On Thursday 13th March 2025, at around 10pm, a fire broke out around the boiler area and the 1st floor (upper floor) of our terraced house caught fire.

My son and I were asleep upstairs, and thankfully, my daughter and my mother were downstairs. I managed to get both my children and my mother out of the house without any physical injuries. Due to the brave and courageous help of the Humberside Fire and Rescue Service, the fire was contained to the 1st floor and parts of the roof space, but there is water damage to the some of the ground floor rooms also.

Unfortunately, we lost Layla's little boy, Jerry the cat (pictured), in the disaster and Layla is inconsolable (as is Tommy and I).

As you can see from the pictures, Layla's bedroom and all her belongings representing her life and achievements were completely destroyed. Similarly, Tommy's bedroom, my bedroom, bathroom and upper hallway also had so much smoke damage, that all of that is gone too. Currently, our house is completely uninhabitable.

Of course I have insurance which covers the rebuild back to basics, and some contents replaced (clothing, bedroom furniture, bathroom furniture and so on), but there is so much gone from Layla's room that it is incredibly difficult to quantify her loss and also Tommy's loss. Also my music and guitar collection which is a significant part of my children's funding for their further education and adult life starting requirements is significantly reduced due to smoke and fire damage.

So, financially, the family is somewhat imperilled, and there are some fairly large ticket items of the children's, which aren't covered by the insurance plan because of a limit on those types of things.

Also, and this is main reason why I am setting up a GoFundMe for Tommy and Layla, is to request donations to help ease their emotional and mental state regarding the explosion, fire and subsequent trauma that they are going through. I love my children and I would very much like to give them opportunities to make new memories while we are waiting for our house to be rebuilt, which, as a single working parent, I cannot do at this present time.

Therefore the funding goals are aiming to achieve several things:

Layla is doing Music GCSE next year, and is taking extra curricular lessons on drums and piano. She is currently playing at Grade 5 Level on both instruments, and is incredibly musical. Layla's electronic drumkit was destroyed by flooding from a burst water pipe and I would love to be able to replace it with a real, acoustic drum kit that will last her a life time. Layla's keyboards which were in her room just don't exist anymore, and I would also dearly love to be able to provide her with a real upright piano and also a new laptop/audio interface and microphones so that she can start to move into a home studio-type territory. It's hard to quantify, but her budding literature collection and vintage clothing collection also needs replacing.

The fire has also very much upset my son, especially now with his SATs imminent. He's been very quiet and introverted since the fire in general, and while he is usually a very strong, funny and gregarious character, I think it will take a long time for him to get over his trauma. Like many young boys, at home he likes his gaming, and just recently started playing guitar with some good instruments and amplifiers which are now too damaged by smoke to either repair or clean to use. Through donations I would like to provide him decent replacements for his music equipment and also replace his gaming consoles and monitor and/or get him a decent gaming PC with which I hope he would also use for homework (!). Tommy has pretty much accepted the fact that all his Transformers and Lego collection is probably unrecoverable, although the insurance said they will try to clean it.

Any other funds would go towards providing Layla and Tommy with new memories: days and trips out to places they want to go, shows, activities, gigs (Layla loves live music), if we're fortunate enough, maybe a short getaway. Anything to help them move on during this bad time of their life.

As for me? I want nothing other than to try any help my children, this is all for them. I am just so grateful we got out of the explosion and fire alive, but I realise that I need to ask for help towards getting their life back on track even though in the short and medium term we will have various difficulties.

As we will probably not be back in our family home for maybe 6 months or more, if donations have been made in the meantime, they will not be spent on items until we have moved back in, and I will endeavour to show any and all the people who have contributed photographs of the items or experiences the children receive or enjoy.

I thank you all ever so much for reading this, much love now and always, Doug x

PS. I have deliberately not provided pictures of my children out of respect for their privacy at this time, I'm sure you will understand, and those of you who know me and my family and are reading this, I know you appreciate that also.

PPS. I don't particularly expect to reach the funding "goal", but I didn't want to put too small a number, or too large for that matter. Any and all contributions by anyone would be gratefully received with love.