Single mother reveals how she sold her £570,000 six-bed Edinburgh townhouse to live in a van and set up a dog training business on a farm ruined by fly-tippers in the Pentland Hills on Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild
- Rizia, 63, appears on Channel 5’s Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Country tonight
- Mother-of-two moved from Edinburgh to Pentland Hills to build up her business
- Revealed she sold her home for £570,000 and bought 27 acres of farm land
- Had to live in a camper van for three months through freezing temperatures
A single mother-of-two revealed how she sold her £570,000 Edinburgh townhouse and lived in a transit van to pour all her savings into building a dog training centre on tonight’s Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild.
Rizia, 63, from Edinburgh, appears on the Channel 5 programme tonight and explained how she felt compelled to change her life after she was forced to shield during the Covid-19 pandemic due to a lung condition.
After selling her six-bedroom home, she bought a 27 acre derelict farm in the Pentland Hills for £250,000, with ambitious plans for a dog training business.
However the land had been abandoned for years, with Rizia spending 12 months clearing debris on the farm and setting up an access road, car park and indoor and outdoor training spaces for the dogs.
But despite the hardship she faced, which included living in a refurnished transit van during a freezing Scottish winter for three months, the mother-of-two told Ben her only regret was that she hadn’t started the business sooner.
Rizia, 63, from Edinburgh, appeared on Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild, which was filmed from March 2021 to spring 2022 and airs tonight at 9pm on Channel 5
With the sale of her £570,000 six-bedroom townhouse, Rizia bought a 27.5 derelict holding in the Pentland Hills of Scotland for £250,000, with ambitious plans for a dog training business
Appearing on the programme, Rizia explained how she had raised her two sons in their six-bedroom family house in the centre of Edinburgh, before turning it into a bed and breakfast for the homeless.
However, she was forced to shield and close the facility when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, leaving her without an income.
So the dog lover decided to sell her house and buy a small farm in order to start a dog training business – something which had been a lifelong dream of hers.
She explained: ‘Because I’m shielding, I had to close my business.
Ben said he thought Rizia was one of the ‘happiest’, ‘most optimistic’ person he’d ever met on the programme. She could count on the help of her two sons, Kyle, left, and John, centre
‘I am not a victim, so I try to be proactive, and I’ve always wanted to get a small holding.’
‘So I thought: “I’ll do it now”. I was going to do it years ago, but life took over.’
She sold her home, and went on to buy the land, all with the knowledge she would be starting completely from scratch on the farm.
Her grand plans for the place included finishing her dog training qualifications, clearing the site of all the rubbish flytippers had left over the years as well as building an indoor and outdoor training area for her beloved dogs.
Meanwhile she also hoped to build her own forever home, and to create a polytunnel in order to cultivate flowers she would then sell to the locals.
Her overall budget for the building works, which included her house, was £170,000.
Rizia poured £570,000 into turning the holding into a successful business, and hoped to do so within a year
Ben was impressed by the determination of the mother-of-two. Rizia tempered she had to be realistic and didn’t think she would get around doing everything she wanted in a year
In order to finance the project, she dug into her savings – leaving herself with just £16,000 to live on for the year.
And thanks to her tight budget, she decided to temporarily live in a transit van, without electricity and running water.
When Ben visited Rizia, she had been living in the van for one week, and she told him she had been seduced by the ‘location, the scenery, the space’ at the farm.
While she admitted she had ‘a lot of work to do,’ she told Ben she was counting on the help of Kyle and Josh.
She said: ‘It was a choice of either wither away and die slowly or go out with a bang, and I’m going out with a bang.’
Ben, pictured with Rizia, her son Kyle, and her son Josh and his family. Josh and Kyle spent every minute of their free time helping their mother on the holding
However, in order to make her dog centre dream come true, Rizia had to start by spending £20,000 on clearing the land, which was full of debris and rubbish left by flytippers.
Ben admitted he was ‘horrified’ when he saw the broken loos, fridges and other rubbish that had been dumped on the farm.
Meanwhile Rizia confessed it looked as though the ‘apocalypse had been and gone.’
Ben told her: ‘Let’s be honest, a lot of people would look at this and say “I can’t do this, not in the winter not in Scotland, I can’t live in a van, with muddy dogs”.’
‘I wasn’t sure if I could, but no, it’s actually not been that bad, and I’m getting quite attached to it,’ Rizia replied.
She spent three months living in the transit van, which included two kennels for her German Shepherds Ellie and Scorch.
Rizia told Ben her only regret was not buying a holding sooner. She revealed on the show it had been a lifelong dream of hers
Rizia and her children spent the first few months clearing out acres of debris and broken glass from the land.
Then, Kyle and Josh installed a 6ft wired fence around what would become the outdoor dog training area, which spanned 1km.
Rizia confessed her plans for the holding were ambitious, and she tempered: ‘Let’s be realistic, it’s probably not all going to be done by the end of the year. But before funds run out, I need to start working and make money.
‘It’s my last big adventure, I’m going to enjoy it.’
By the end of May, the site looked clean enough to host Rizia’s first dog training client, which made her even more determined to go through with her dream.
She went on to take the last part of her dog training qualification exams and passed, allowing her to spread the world about her training course online.
Six months on from moving to the farm, and she was living in a static caravan she had bought from a neighour for £1,000.
And by the autumn, she was hosting more and more clients on the farm. But without an access road or car park, accommodating large groups was still difficult.
She ploughed on with her investment, spending £20,000 refurbishing the farm’s derelict gate house into an indoor training area.
But due to her tight budget, she continued to put off building somewhere permanent to live.
‘People think the house is my priority. It isn’t. My priority is to get the place up and running,’ Rizia explained.
When Ben visited a year later, he was delighted to see the holding looking tidy, and the business booming.
Rizia said: ‘I’m loving it, I absolutely love it, I’m buzzing.’
And while she was still living in the static caravan, she assured Ben it was just temporary and that she was working towards building her own house.
She said: ‘If we’re going to talk about it in stages, when I first came here, it was a lot harder. I didn’t know what I’d let myself in for.
‘It was hard, really, really hard but looking back on it, I think we did pretty well considering.
‘Yeah I’m glad of where we’re at. We’ve achieved what we wanted to achieve this year if that makes sense.’
She assured the presenter she had no regrets, adding: ‘This is definitely the best step I’ve ever made, getting out of the city and coming here.’
Meanwhile she added that her only regret was that she ‘didn’t do it sooner, that’s all.’
‘This is a working dream, this is all about the dogs and the business and being happy.’
Meanwhile Ben said that despite it all, she remained one of the ‘happiest and most optimistic people’ he had ever met.
Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Country airs tonight at 9pm on Channel 5.
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