Celebrities including England’s most capped Lioness Fara Williams and cricket legend Monty Panesar took part in the biggest ever ‘Sleep Walk’ for Shelter event on Tuesday 3rd December to raise money to support the hundreds of thousands of families at risk of homelessness this Christmas.
A child becomes homeless in Britain every eight minutes. The stars from the world of sport and entertainment have been showing their support for the 10-kilometre nighttime walk across London from the UK’s leading housing and homelessness charity in a bid to help, including Rita Ora, Rio Ferdinand, Mel C, Nicola Roberts and Edith Bowman.
A new report out today revealed there are now 135,000 children in Britain without a home according to Shelter. This year’s Sleep Walk for Shelter united over 2,500 Londoners to brave the winter conditions and walk across the capital at night – starting and finishing at London Waterloo – to take a stand against homelessness and raise much needed funds to fight the crisis.
Shelter supporter Fara Williams said: “It’s amazing to see so many people come together today and Sleep Walk for Shelter. Homelessness and bad housing affects hundreds of thousands of people in the UK so it’s more important than ever that we support those who are at risk of losing their homes. With our help, they can make a difference to people who need it this Christmas.”
Polly Neate, chief executive at Shelter, said: “The housing emergency is spiralling out of control, and we know hundreds of thousands of children will be spending Christmas in grim temporary accommodation, cramped into one room with their whole family and sharing bathrooms with strangers.
Every child has the right to a safe home and if we act now, we can help get them to a better place. We are thrilled to see so many people joining Sleep Walk London this year to help us raise funds to help us be there for every family that needs us.”
Sleep Walk for Shelter took place for the first time in London last December and has been rolled out to Manchester in addition to London in 2019.
