Hucknall group putting best foot forward to help the homeless

On March 12, at 8am, the group will be walking from Hucknall Market Place to Nottingham train station and back – a distance of 14.5 miles – to raise funds for Homeless Lives Matter.

The charity goes out every Thursday evening to provide food, hot drinks and sleeping bags for the homeless in and around Nottingham and Hucknall.

Community champion Julia Lindo, who is part of the Homeless Lives Matter team, is one of the walk organisers.

She said: “It’s about raising awareness of what we do, as much as raising funds.

"We are self-funded so we rely on donations from people and businesses and they help provide things like Pot Noodles, sugar, coffee, tea and sleeping bags that we can give to homeless people.

The walk has received support from the Hucknall branch of Specsavers on High Street, as well as other businesses.

Hannah Beale, store manager at Hucknall Specsavers, who will also be one of the walkers, said: “I saw a post Julia put up about the walk that said it was looking for hi-vis jackets so I took it upon myself to contact Julia and offer to sponsor some hi-vis jackets for her, which we are doing.

“Also, Specsavers Hucknall is going to donate £1 for every test we do leading up to the walk which should make a really good contribution too.”

Julia said: “People can sponsor us to do this, we have sponsor forms available in Specsavers and people can make donations there too.

“It’s great as well that Specsavers are supporting us and we’ve had a lot of help from other businesses too.

“Ideal Cars has been really supportive, OT Fundraisers in Hucknall provides us with Pot Noodles to take out on a Thursday, the Methodist Church on Watnall Road opens on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings to offer free drinks and toast to the homeless, Bite 2 Eat on Portland Road, gives warm bacon cobs and drinks to homeless people and Cassidy’s on Watnall Road provided us with sandwiches, crisps and cakes to take out on Thursdays around town too, so thank you to all of them.”