Margaret Bridgman from Cromer, East Anglia, has been selected as the winner of the UK Cleaner of Excellence Award ““ winning over £1,000 worth of Miele appliances in a competition launched as part of Miele’s 80th anniversary celebrations since manufacturing its first vacuum cleaner.
Margaret was nominated by her husband Christopher, who wanted her to be rewarded for her achievements as one of Britain’s “˜Housework Heroes’. She was crowned winner for giving up her career as a senior IT professional to provide full-time care for Christopher, who’d had to give up his job after a serious accident, and had then lost what remained of his eyesight following an attack of acute glaucoma.
When the couple married 30 years ago, they began a luxurious lifestyle, living in a house in Windsor, fully-equipped with all the technical advancements and modern conveniences they could dream of. But when Margaret gave up her career to care for Christopher, the couple moved to a smaller 1970s seaside house in Cromer.
Christopher explains: “In place of Margaret’s job, she has devoted herself to decorating a new house, cooking, cleaning, washing up, ironing, gardening and taking care of me. Ten years on, she continues to balance this with a part-time job as a shop assistant, without a word of complaint or yearning for our old life.”
He adds: “Margaret takes pride in what she does and always keeps our house clean and tidy, while still managing to find time to take me to the local cinema or for a day out in Norwich as a treat.”
Margaret found housekeeping particularly difficult during the first two years of Christopher’s condition, as he became sensitive to light after developing photophobia, and needed to keep the house in complete darkness. The arrival of his guide dog Brownie, a moulting Labrador Retriever, contributed to the cleaning necessity, as her hair “˜literally gets into every corner and covers clothes, floors and furniture.’ “It can even block up the gas fire and chimney,” Christopher says.
Christopher’s award entry also described some of the other obstacles that Margaret overcomes when cleaning the house each day, such as the constant flow of sand from the beach that coats surfaces in the house if windows or doors are open.
On discovering she had won the competition, Margaret enthused: “I’m absolutely delighted! It was a wonderful surprise and it’s been great to visit Miele’s Experience Centre to select our prizes.”
She continued: “Christopher is not very well a lot of the time and I was really touched that he had taken the trouble to put me forward for the award. I’m sure that there are a lot of carers out there who are doing far more than I do, but the person they are looking after isn’t well enough to put them forward. I think it is wonderful that a large organisation such as Miele is doing something to help carers.”
The couple chose a washing machine and dishwasher with their winnings, and also received a limited edition gold-coloured Miele vacuum.
The Cleaner of Excellence competition was run for the first time in 2007 and hundreds of entries were received from around the country, nominating unsung “˜Housework Heroes’. Mrs Bridgman was declared the overall winner by judges in December, and ten winners from other UK regions also received a Miele limited edition gold-coloured vacuum.