A single mum of three was moved to tears after receiving a ‘life-changing’ gift on Rich House, Poor House on Channel 5
A single mother-of-three, struggling with mounting debts, was brought to tears after a millionaire invested £100,000 in her emerging restaurant business and cleared her debt on Rich House, Poor House.
Valerie Mayer, from Portsmouth, who balances raising her three children while working as a full-time carer, featured on the Channel 5 programme on Sunday (March 29) evening alongside mum Cleopatra.
The gifted home cook has always had dreams of opening a Zimbabwean restaurant in the UK, however with a weekly budget of merely £53 her lifelong dream has been sidelined as she struggles to stay afloat financially.
In a heartbreaking revelation, she confessed that she has received threats from debt collectors. She said: “My financial situation got so bad that I had bailiffs come in, and I just went into a state of panic. I was looking out of the windows to see if anyone was there. I got scared to leave the house.”
Experiencing how the wealthiest 1% live, Valerie exchanged homes for a week with tech startup millionaire Steve Bolton, who lived in a luxurious £1m, six-bedroom property in Bournemouth, reports the Mirror.
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The father-of-four left school at 16 without qualifications but established a business from the ground up, with his firm now holding a portfolio valued at £750m.
Given his demanding lifestyle as an entrepreneur, he missed out on precious time with his children, so he decided to invite his eldest daughter, marketing expert Ella, and his clothes shop owner son Charlie to accompany him on the programme.
The family swapped their home — complete with two lounges, a dining room for eight, six bedrooms and five bathrooms — for a week-long stay in Val’s council house, situated 60 miles along the coast.
While Steve and his two children were required to manage on a weekly budget of £51.93, Valerie and her mother were afforded a taste of affluent living with £2,000 to spend. Val and Cleopatra splashed out on expensive seafood, embarked on shopping trips and even enjoyed a day at the races.
Meanwhile, Steve and his family struggled to adjust to their new surroundings, and emotions ran high when Steve was visibly moved upon discovering the extent of Valerie’s debt.
It became apparent that Steve was determined to help Valerie turn her life around, and he had several surprises in store when the pair were finally reunited following their swap.
The millionaire not only pledged to invest £100,000 into her restaurant venture, but also cleared all her outstanding debts and had her garden transformed.
Seated across from one another, Steve told her: “We’ve been talking a lot about how we might be able to help you guys because that’s obviously a big part of what we want to do and we’ve thought about three things that we can do to help you.”
He went on to add: “The first one is already done and it’ll be a surprise when you get home, the second one is about your debt situation, so we wanted to get you out of debt and then the third thing is we want to back your vision, your dream, your passion and your talent for business.
“Support you financially, support you with mentoring, support you with anything and everything you need up to a value of £100,000.”
Visibly emotional, Valerie struggled to compose herself as she responded: “Oh, wow. I don’t even know…How do you say thank you? Thank you. Wow, this is amazing.”
With tears streaming down her face she said: “I’m feeling really overwhelmed right now. Happy tears. This can change mine in my family’s life. I really wanted this so much and I’m so glad that my family’s also going to be involved in this because it’s going to change everything for the better.”
Rich House, Poor House airs Sunday night from 9pm on Channel 5
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