St John Healthcare has become the Channel Islands Premier Partner for UK based company Stiltz Home Lifts.

St John has also entered into a new partnership with local company Chescoe Limited Chartered Surveyors who is regulated by RICS, to provide a one-stop-shop for the installation of Stiltz Home Lifts.

The partnerships were agreed earlier this year, but the official announcement was put on-hold during the recent lockdown.

St John Commercial Manager Gina Gooding said: “We are delighted to have been made Stiltz Premier Partners. At St John Healthcare we aim to support people who need some extra help at home. We know a lot of people want to stay in their own house, but find it hard to manage with stairs. The Stiltz Home Lift partnership means we can offer people another option to help them stay in their own home for longer. Our partnership with Nigel adds an extra level of technical expertise and professional oversight and will give our customers extra peace of mind by helping to ensure a timely, safe and inclusive completion of the project.”

As the lockdown restrictions start to be relaxed, an experienced St John Healthcare engineer who has been trained by Stiltz in the UK, will be able to restart undertaking surveys, installation and servicing of the through floor lifts.

Chescoe, Chartered Surveyors’s technical support and St John’s friendly customer service will take the worry and pressure off the customer by providing a comprehensive package covering all aspects of the installation, including surveys, building work and obtaining statutory approvals.

Nigel Chescoe added: “This is an exciting new project that I am thrilled to be working on with St John. We have been brought on board to ensure our clients receive the best service possible and to take the stress and personal management of the process away. We are experts in contract administration and together with St John Healthcare, we can work quickly to provide solutions for those in need of lift installations.”

Guernsey resident Graham Moulin had a Stiltz Home Lift installed through the new partnership between St John and Chescoe Chartered Surveyors last year, so that his wife Val could return home after poor health meant she temporarily needed to spend some time in a nursing home. Val is known to many in Guernsey as Val Pilkinton, former presenter of Classical Choice on BBC Radio Guernsey, supporter of arts in Guernsey and council member of the St James Concert Hall.

Speaking from the comfort of their living room, with the new lift in the background, Graham said: “Everyone has been so helpful. The team from St John, the builders and decorators have been excellent. Nigel Chescoe is so personable and has made the process so easy. We wanted to get Val back home in time for our wedding anniversary. The work was completed on time and Val was able to move back in at 3 o’clock on our special day.”

Val added: “Everyone in hospital was very good, but I didn’t have total independence, so I longed to get back to my own home so I could start living normally again. The Stiltz lift has given me my house back and my life back.”

Graham added: “The lift has made a huge amount of difference in all sorts of ways, without it Val wouldn’t have been able to come home. Having Val back in her own surroundings has allowed us to eat what we what we want, when we want. It has allowed us to start communicating better and laughing together again.”

Stiltz Home Lifts are fitted between the floor and the ceiling and can travel up to three floors depending on model. They offer a safe and stylistic alternative to a traditional stairlift.  By providing an affordable solution to mobility and access issues, it allows people to stay in the home they love for longer. The unique Stiltz range are the first and only lifts of their kind to be available in the British Isles.

Stiltz Home Lifts are designed to be spacious, comfortable and safe, and thanks to the compact footprint and drive mechanism the lists can be fitted into almost any home, offering an ideal and alternative to a stairlift. A home lift can carry up to three people or a wheelchair if required. Customers sometimes decide to get a lift installed while they are still relatively active and before they reach the stage that it might become a necessity.

Gina Gooding added: “This partnership fits well with the vision of the Supported Living and Aging Well Strategy and is another example of how St John is helping to improve the lives of islanders. It also has wider benefits for the community because St John Healthcare is a not for profit organisation which supports the charitable work of St John Ambulance Guernsey locally.”

To find out more about the selection of Stiltz Home Lifts available from St John Healthcare please email shop@stjohn.gg or call 729268.