Generous fundraisers in Purbeck have delivered the perfect Easter gift to Swanage teacher Tiff Randall and her baby Hazel after their world was torn apart.
Plumber Jack Guilfoyle, who was due to marry Tiff in August 2025 and had spent months before Christmas building his young family a perfect home, died unexpectedly in February 2025 at the age of just 30 after a heart operation.
Jack and Tiff welcomed baby Hazel into their lives in November 2024
Refused life insurance on his mortgage
Because he had a pre existing heart condition, he was refused life insurance when he took out a mortgage on his Wareham home, leaving Tiff with a struggle to make monthly payments and look after her new born baby.
But his uncle Jeremy Guilfoyle and other family members stepped in to set up a Go Fund Me page, and in just two months it has raised more than £70,000 to keep Tiff and Hazel in the house that Jack built for the next four years without having to worry.
On Saturday 12th April 2025, Sandford Labour Club held a fundraising event for Tiff and Hazel, raising £5,103, and the Swanage Legion has also organised an event to help swell the coffers.
And friends, family, local businesses and well wishers continue to add to the appeal, which organisers hope will eventually pay the mortgage at least until Hazel is established at school – if not clear the debt completely.
Jack proposed to Tiff on holiday in 2022 and they started looking for a home of their own
“We are overcome with gratitude”
Through her family, Tiff said:
“Hazel and I would like to thank the community from the bottom of our hearts – we are absolutely overwhelmed by their kindness and generosity.
“We are absolutely overcome with gratitude. It has been truly unbelievable and we are honestly lost for words.
“To see so many faces at the events – some familiar, some complete strangers – all coming together for us was incredibly moving.”
Happier times, looking forward to a future together
“I know Jack would be smiling down”
Tiff Randall added:
“We feel so lucky to be part of such a kind, generous, and caring community. Their love and support means everything to me and Hazel during such a heartbreaking time.
“I know Jack would be smiling down, filled with pride and comfort, knowing Hazel’s future is a little more secure thanks to each and every one of you. His final wish was for us to have a home for our beautiful daughter.
“All I can say is for everything you have done, I am and will always be so grateful. Hazel and I really are lucky to have an incredible community behind us thank you all!”
Jack and Hazel in the nursery he built for her
Aorta expanded to alarming degree
Jack and Tiff, who went to the same schools in Wareham, began dating in 2016 and got engaged in 2022, set a date to get married in August 2025 and started looking for a family home in Wareham.
But in 2023, Jack started feeling unwell and went to see his doctor, who referred him to hospital where they discovered that his aorta had expanded to an alarming degree.
It was almost twice the width that it should have been and had reached a point where it was at risk of splitting if it expanded any more, which would have been fatal.
Jack needed urgent surgery in Southampton, which included a valve replacement in his heart and a sleeve around his aorta to control it, an operation which went well and which he seemed to have recovered well from.
The new family spent their first Christmas together before Jack went back into hospital
Vowed to have Christmas in his new home
Jack’s uncle Jeremy Guilfoyle said:
“Jack got himself back to work, and he and Tiff found a house in Northmoor which was in a terrible state and needed a lot of work doing to it.
“They bought it just after they discovered that Tiff was pregnant and so Jack, with the help of his dad, his brother and friends worked really hard to get the house together so it would be ready for when Hazel was born.
“Unfortunately, towards the end of 2024 Jack started to feel unwell again and had a couple of scans which led to an operation being scheduled, originally just before Christmas.
“But Jack was determined that he would have Christmas in his new house with Tiff and Hazel, so the operation was delayed.
“Jack finished rebuilding the house just in time – he might have been doing a little bit of grouting on Christmas Eve, but it was all done, the house looked lovely and they had the whole family round for Christmas Day.”
Jack spent months renovating and rebuilding the family’s new home in Northmoor
“A terribly difficult and sad time”
Jeremy added:
“When they started the operation, in January, they discovered a lot of damage in the previous operating area, Jack ended up in surgery for 18 hours and when it was over he was totally reliant on a whole multitude of life support machines to keep him going.
“Over the course of the following week they could see some progress, so they started switching the machines off one by one to see how he would cope and got to the point where they managed to switch them all off and he was doing OK.
“But then, less than a day afterwards, his condition rapidly deteriorated and we lost him. It was a terribly difficult and sad time for the whole family, but I also recognised the impact it would have on Tiff.
“I was aware that when he took out his mortgage on his house, because of his previous operation, he couldn’t get life insurance and I knew that was going to cause a problem.”
Hazel’s nursery pictured before Jack started work on it
The nursery was completed in time for Hazel to move in
Army of volunteers to share the page
With help from his sister, Jeremy set up a GoFundMe page for Tiff, reached out to his professional network and had an army of volunteers lined up to share and like the appeal page.
It was launched early one Wednesday morning and by 8 o’clock that evening, the total pledged had already reached £35,000.
GoFundMe set the original target at £15,000, but has had to revise the sum upward several times since – and Jeremy hopes it could eventually reach £200,000 to cover the whole mortgage.
The kitchen had been left in quite a poor condition
The room was almost unrecognisable by the time Jack finished work on it
“Jack worked day and night”
Jeremy Guilfoyle said:
“Tiff is on maternity leave and won’t be back at work for at least a year, but I thought that if we could even pay her mortgage for a year, it would mean she wouldn’t need to worry about the house and could focus on her own recovery and looking after Hazel.
“Among all the things she has to worry about, we wanted to make sure that she didn’t have to worry about the mortgage.
“We have raised enough now so she probably doesn’t have to worry about it for several years, which is wonderful because by then Hazel will be close to school age, Tiff will be back at work and her life will have moved on in the best ways we can hope for.
“Jack was determined to give his little family the best start in life, and worked night and day to finish all the jobs needed to complete their first house.
“Now we know that the house that Jack literally built will be safe and we have achieved something that he would have been proud of.”
Further information
- Donations to the appeal for Tiff and Hazel can be made at GoFundMe
