Volunteers turn out to help the homeless

Volunteers turned out in force to hand out hot drinks, food and warm clothing to homeless people in Wigan.

Organisers Dawn Taylor and Lana Nocker were joined by dozens of volunteers who gave up there time to help people sleeping on the streets in the town centre on Wednesday evening.

Every year at Christmas, Dawn chooses a different charity to help but decided this year she wanted to do something more long term.

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But she didn’t expect the response she received after posting about the idea on social media and has had dozens of people to come forward with offers to help.

The group spent two hours, from 7pm until 9pm in Market Place on Wednesday to hand out tea, sandwiches prepared by Dawn and Lana and bundles of warm clothing.

Dawn, 38, said: “I stayed up one night creating a Facebook page and by the morning I had more than 200 people on it. I just wanted to some donations, I didn’t realise what I had done or how big it would get.

“Lana contacted me saying she wanted to help so we decided to both work together.

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“Some people think homlessness isn’t a problem anymore and there is, it has just been swept under the carpet.

“I have also set up a Just Giving page to start a collection so we can provide a bed and breakfast for people sleeping rough at Christmas.

They are planning to make it a weekly event and are in talks with The Gateway Church about the possibility of holding the next one indoors.

Lana said: “The turn out was fantastic. We were overwhelmed how everyone came together.”

To find out more, visit the helping the homeless (wigan) Facebook page or justgiving.com/crowdfunding/dawn-taylor-5?utm_id=92.