Sleeping Rough - A Blow By Blow Account

Wednesday October 6th

It was midnight.  I was checking out the charity website as my pal was going to be sleeping rough for charity on Friday 8th October.  I had sponsored him already.  I wanted to know if they would be doing a similar event in Scotland that I could do later in the year/next year.  It turned out that they were doing Edinburgh on the same night!  

I was due to be meeting my mate Mark for dinner and a catch up on the Friday night.  I decided that maybe raising some money for kids with no house would be a more effective use of my Friday night.  I texted Mark to try and rearrange our night but instead, I ended up talking him into doing it with me!

I registered on the charity website at 0100 that morning, knowing that I had to raise a minimum of £500 before the event (no pressure then)! 

Thursday October 7th

I set up my fundraising page at 0700 (the virgin site was down overnight) and by 0900 I had my first donation.

I bugged people on Facebook, I sent emails and texts.  Money started coming in.  I bugged people on Facebook some more. 

Friday October 8th (up to 2300)

By 1530 (yes, not even 33 hours later) I had hit my target of £500.  Wow!

I arrived at the hotel for registration at 1930 and met Mark who I had not seen in the flesh since our days in Carnegie Youth Theatre.  Neither of us had changed at all really.  We had a good old catch up and a free drink (always a bonus) then we were herded into the main room.  The hotel had laid on some food so we had a wee portion of lasagne and another wine (not free this time, boo).  Des Clarke, very funny man, hosted the start of the night and introduced the main people at the charity 'Action for Children' and then we were introduced to Rachel.

Rachel, first got involved with Action for Children when she was just 15.  She felt she had no other option but to make herself homeless because her home life was so full of neglect due to her drug addicted parents. She feared she would end up as bad as them or dead and she desperately wanted to break the cycle she found herself in.  Listening to her was an incredibly humbling experience.

Rachel is now at college, has a job and her own bedsit. She's an inspiration and really put it all in perspective.  I struggled to hold back the tears and decided that after tonight, I would definitely get more involved in the charity.

After our heart strings had been pulled, we then had a raffle (we all put a tenner into envelopes with our names on) and I won dinner for 2 at a posh castle in Fort William - I've donated this to my mum and Bob who pumped £100 into my fundraising page, it was the only right thing to do - plus, being a divorced woman I'd have to go by myself and as fun as that would be, it seemed an awful waste of a second dinner!

We had a quiz and realised they were just filling in time until 2300 when we would start heading to the field!  The reason for their timings was simple.  Real homeless people cannot 'settle down' for the night until around 2300/0000 because they are always moved on before then.  Real homeless people have to be up and off again at 0600 otherwise they are moved on and face a drama with the police and/or shop owners...

Friday October 8th - THE NIGHT

2315: We arrive at the field (Holyrood Park) in the pitch black

2316: I try to get my Argos sleeping bag out of my car without dropping all my crap everywhere

2330: We walk and stumble across the field and find a spot (after doing the 'dog shit check') to 'pitch' for the night

2335: It was blowing a gale as we tried to pin down our groundsheets.  We have no camping equipment cos it wasn't allowed so we had to use our brollies as pitching stick things

2345:  It starts to drizzle with rain, but our brollies are otherwise engaged.

2347: I put my big fluffy hat on

Saturday 9th October

0000: I wander over to the toilet block to make sure they had bog roll, bought a £1.99 pizza for a tenner on my way back and sat down with my news pals on our wet groundsheet

0020: Holy shit, the night is going slowly

0030: Get the box of wine out and have a laugh with my new pal  (mark has already decided to get tucked up and try to sleep)

0050: We decide to have a sack race in our survival sacks (massive thick bin bags!)

0055: I win the first race and my pal decided it wasn't fair because she is disabled and has a club foot and couldn't walk properly in her socks - we had a rematch after she put her shoes on

0100: I won second time and was called a cheat because I didn't have a club foot(?!)

0115: We drank a bit more red wine and failed miserably to light our scented candle (it was blowing a gale to be fair)

0300: Some fit boys came over to our groundsheet cos we were the only others still awake.  They were drinking Buckfast and we were now on water!

0310: We decided to have more sack races but this time, you could trip other people up and generally cheat like a fecker!

0325: Got up off the wet muddy floor after being battered round the napper with a glow stick and came 3rd in our 10th race!

0430: we all decided we should try and get some sleep...

0530: still wide awake cos it's freezing, blowing a gale and there's a really wet har (fog for the non Scots!)  all round the field

0600: the charity women 'wake' us up and told us coffee was now in the tent

0600:30: I've got my lips round my first cup of the day, freezing like it's the arctic and wishing I could magic myself home

0700: I drop Marky Mark off at the station and head to Tesco to pick up some milk - in my muddy minging clothes, wearing a fluffy Russian hat, with breath like dead maggots and looking like I'd been held captive somewhere for months

0730: I got home and just dumped all my crap in the spare room and shut the door.  If you can't see it, you don't need to tidy it!

0800: I got in the bath and have never felt so happy and warm

0810: I started crying because I realised that real homeless people never have a bath and warmth to look forward to.  I realised that there are some people in this world who have nothing to look forward to.  I realised that there are people in this world who live the most awful life.  I realised that more must be done.

Saturday 9th October (continued...)

I spent the day trying to sleep but to no avail. Think it was my brains way of making me suffer as much as possible!

I chatted to some mates on the phone and SKYPE I watched a couple of films, I practically memorised the Action for Children website.

I finally went to bed at about 2100 and continued farting about with work stuff.  I was still awake at 0200!  Any need?!

Sunday 10th October
I must have finally got some sleep as I woke up at 1030.  I tried to get out of bed and realised I couldn't actually move.  My bones were stiff as boards and my legs were like jelly.  The aching started at my head and finished at my feet.  I walked to the kettle looking and feeling like a 98 year old.  Holy crap.  If that's how my body reacts after sleeping rough for ONE night.  How the hell do all those people who do it EVERY night cope?  

Cope?  Is that even the right choice of word?  Should they even HAVE to cope with it?

In this day and age, in a supposedly developed country, why are there so many children and young people forced to live outside like feral animals.  They don't WANT to live like that.  Many CHOOSE to live like that because it's better than their alternative - FUCK SAKE!  Imagine how bad their lives must be if sleeping on the streets is BETTER.

Folks, next time you see a homeless person on the street, instead of walking past, feeling all self righteous and indignant.  Ask yourself WHY they are there in the first place.  I tell you, in many cases the answer is not because they really WANT to be but because it's BETTER than what they had.  In other cases it's because they lost everything they had overnight...

...many people are only a paycheck away from finding themselves homeless.  Remember that next time you stick your nose in the air as you walk past someone sleeping in a doorway.