Latest news with #TheGreatTommySleepOut
Yahoo
29-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Five to brave a night sleeping outside to raise funds for homeless veterans
FIVE members of The Hart of Martin committee are challenging themselves to a sleep out to raise funds to help homeless veterans. Led by Paul Robinson, 76, the team will sleep outside the front of the Hart of Martin with no tents, and just sleeping bags. The challenge comes as part of 'The Great Tommy Sleep Out', organised by the Royal British Leigion, encouraging people to 'sleep beneath the stars' to fundraise for veterans across the UK. Data shared by the government in January showed that one in 400 veterans were homeless, rough sleeping or living in a refuge for domestic abuse in 2022 alone. READ MORE: The team will sleep out from 9pm to 9am and you can donate here. Paul Robinson (chairman), Janet Richards, Graham Elford, Barry Collier (Image: Hart of Martin) The Great Tommy Sleep Out website says: 'The challenge doesn't replicate rough sleeping, but it does give you an idea of the situation far too many of the nation's heroes find themselves in'. Paul said: 'My father fought in the first World War when he was 16, and he was a sergeant by the time he was 17. 'It's quite important - I think the fact our lads who have fought in Afghanistan end up on the street - it's just not right to me.'
BBC News
01-03-2025
- General
- BBC News
Doncaster firefighter's rough-sleep month for homeless veterans
A firefighter plans to sleep outside for the whole of March in an effort to raise money for homeless Yorkshire Fire and Rescue station manager Gary Devonport, 40, said he hoped to raise £3,000 for the Royal British Legion Industries charity, while also raising awareness of the problems veterans faced when they left the Devonport said his experiences in the armed forces and supporting the veteran community in the fire service had inspired the challenge."The original plan was for one night, but I thought to raise as much money as I could it had to be some sort of a challenge. So I decided to do it for a month - and with no tent as well," he explained. Mr Devonport said his challenge was part of The Great Tommy Sleep Out, a national fundraising challenge designed to support homeless veterans experiencing homelessness in the said he would spend most nights in March in a sleeping bag under tarpaulin in his garden."I will use an old school military basha, which is essentially a bit like a tarpaulin that you normally span from a couple of trees, but it might be a garden fence," he said. Mr Devonport served in the armed forces for six years between 2001 and 2007 before becoming a firefighter."I loved my time in the military. It just kind of came to a natural end and I needed something for me that was similar in terms of discipline, structure and meaning," he said."I think it's quite important to be a part of something. So, for me, leaving the military, I was always going to try to be in a uniform service because I saw the natural similarities between them both."Mr Devonport, who works with South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue's Armed Forces Network supporting other veterans, said soldiers were "notoriously terrible at asking for help"."That's why some find their way on to the streets, because it's not normally first nature to ask people for support," he said."We've seen a boom in general homelessness anyway, in the last sort of 10 years. You only have to go to London and look in most alleyways to see there's quite a lot of homelessness."Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North or tell us a story you think we should be covering here.
