Grand Designs couple from most heartbreaking episode ever have ‘no regrets’

A couple who appeared on Grand Designs in what turned out to be one of the most emotional episodes ever have opened up about regrets over their renovation project, after suffering from health battles.

Tony Searby, 65, undertook an ambitious construction project to transform their house in Henley into a wellness home.

However, around the same time that it was being built, his wife Ara was diagnosed with cancer in September 2022.

‘Nobody could have predicted what was going to happen to me,’ she said in a recent episode.

‘Now the path is to peace and contentment and gratitude, and I have so much to be grateful for.

‘I live in a little peace of heaven.’

Her comments brought presenter Kevin McCloud to tears, as he said he was ‘in awe’ of the couple.

‘Very tough and very wonderful of you to have got this far, I think that’s just a great thing,’ he said.

Tony has now shared his fears that the stress of the £1,000,000 project took a toll on his wife.

He said: ‘The way things have worked out specifically around Ara’s health and wellbeing does create a level of questioning.

‘If I had known what would happen to Ara’s health maybe I wouldn’t do it over again.

‘The whole irony was how the house was being built for wellness but there was the negative impact it was having on Ara.’

They had planned on renovating their 1960s bungalow, built by Tony’s late parents, into a six-bedroom, ‘horseshoe-shaped’ house with large windows to look out at their nature surroundings.

The plans also included high tech features like lights changing colours to reflect daylight and match circadian rhythms.

Tony and Ara also wanted to host wellbeing programmes and retreats there.

However, the couple were dealt another blow when Tony suffered a fall during renovations, resulting him being hospitalised with a fractured tailbone.

He spent a week in hospital after falling off a trolley while screwing a board into the ceiling, and needed stitches for the cuts he received.

Despite the health setbacks during renovation, Tony added to MailOnline that he hopes their new home will fulfil its purpose and match their hopes for it.

He continued: ‘I wouldn’t have been able to do it all by myself. Before Ara became unwell she gave me a lot of help.

‘Things have picked up for her at the moment to a degree, which is good, but she nevertheless has concerns about the underlying health conditions.

‘With a project into the unknown you have to plan and think carefully about how two people embrace a journey they haven’t been on before and how they deal with the challenges.

‘There’s always unknown elements that kick in too and you have to be ready and prepared.’

Despite saying he ‘wouldn’t do it over again’ had he known about his wife’s diagnosis at the time, Tony stood by the fact that he felt like it was ‘the right thing to do’ at the time.

He said: ‘With hindsight I’m not so sure but you can never turn the clock back in life. Life is what it is.

‘With any project you have things you can look at with a level of satisfaction, achievement and pride but you have other things that you look at and think if I had my time all over again I would have done it differently. That’s life.’

He added that the only changes he would make if he did it all over again were changes that would be ‘easier’ and ‘more effective’ to make things ‘quicker and less expensive’.

After their episode aired, viewers shared their support for Tony and Ara after the difficulties they’d faced, with @maddiercfj writing: ‘Ara and Tony – great resilience through hard times. Enjoy your beautiful home.’

‘What a lovely soul Ara is i hope she recovers,’ @daisykate2 added, as @BethAnders69409 said: ‘Wishing all the best for Ara.’