13 year old Portslade boy to climb Snowdon for Sussex Homeless Support

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

13 year old Portslade boy to climb Snowdon to raise money for

Sussex Homeless Support

Gabriel Preston, aged 13, volunteers for SHS but has taken his support one step further. Devoting his school holidays to daily training, he will be embarking on his first ever mountain climb - tackling Snowdon on 15th August, 2018, to raise funds for the charity. Snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales stands at 3,560ft.

With Gabriel, will be his mum Andrea, another supporter of SHS, who is also in training for her first ever marathon in support of the charity - the Reigate Intersport 10K on 16th September.

Last Christmas, whilst on a shopping trip, Gabriel and his sister become upset and overwhelmed by the amount of people sleeping on the streets of Brighton and expressed a wish to do something to help. Mum Andrea heard about Sussex Homeless Support and Jim Deans. The rest as they say, is history.

You can support Gabriel and Andrea’s fundraising for SHS here:

https://www.gofundme.com/snowdon-amp-10k-run

About Sussex Homeless Support(SHS)

Based in Brighton but with links covering the UK, SHS is a homeless charity that works with and supports many others in the city to achieve its ambition of zero food poverty and 100 % support for all people in Brighton.

As well as collecting food and items of clothing and distributing them out daily to people on the streets, SHS provides cooking for the Anti-Freeze Homeless Project (Mondays) and hosts the lively Street Kitchen at the Clock tower on Sundays, where it currently feeds about 100 people each week. The charity also provides supplies to people recently re-housed.

The Mobile Night Shelter

Sussex Homeless Support recently acquired an old double decker bus and converted it to a mobile night shelter. There are ten bunks upstairs and seating and bathroom area downstairs.

The bus is up and running and since day one has been full every night. Trained volunteers operate the bus, ensuring that it is a safe and secure place to sleep for men, women and their pets.

Hot food is provided by volunteers from the local community.

To see a great video about the bus, follow this link:

The bus will also act as an education source, so schools for example, can see and learn more about the homeless crisis.

Sunday Street Kitchen

The lively Street Kitchen runs every Sunday at the Brighton Clock tower. It sets up at 1pm and finishes at 3pm and leaves little evidence it was there at all. During that time, volunteers serve hot food and drinks and provide supplies such as clothing, sleeping bags and toiletries to up to eighty people who have been unfortunate enough to have ended up on the streets.

The Street Vets are also present, giving food, toys and providing medical treatment for homeless dogs.

The Street Kitchen is very much what you see on the tin; you can donate an item on Sunday and two minutes later see someone on the streets wearing it. If you want to help out, just stand behind a stall and pitch in.

Military Links

SHS has several ex-service volunteers and links with ex-military bases such as Royal Artillery in Selsey who provide much of the kit donated and given out to the homeless. Together with one of the UKs largest military surplus stores, the bases have provided many boxes of clothes, boots, sleeping bags and liners which have literally saved lives this winter. The charity has 20 regular ex-service homeless people and has assisted one person recently into secure tenancy and access to his children.

Contact to donate and volunteer or for further information:

Sussex Homeless Support, Unit 7E 196 Old Shoreham Rd, Hove BN3 7EX

Email: Jim Deans at jimdeans@devlinmediagroup.co.uk

Tel: Jim Deans 07774 266244

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/sussexhomelesssupport/

Twitter: @SussexNightBus

Donate to the GoFundMe appeal set up by Jim Deans - Homeless and Rough Sleepers: https://www.gofundme.com/homeless-and-rough-sleeper-crisis

or you can set up a standing order - anything from £1 a month - details are:

Account 83-04-25, Account number: 19332059 Account name: Sussex Homeless Support

Registered charity number: 1175229

Press enquiries:

Julia Nye

07753 660775

julia.a.nye@btinternet.com

or

Jim Deans

07774 266244

jimdeans@devlinmediagroup.co.uk