A man who spent his nights living along Southport Promenade said he turned his life around due to the "ridiculous" kindness of strangers.
David Jones, 57, became homeless in 2021 after losing his accommodation in Preston. He said after having nowhere to go he decided to "go walkabout" ending up in Southport to "die there".
David had spent the last ten years of his life shifting from B&Bs to hotels whenever he "got the urge to move". David has bipolar disorder and during the pandemic he lost contact with his mental health support worker which he says was one of the contributing factors that led to him ending up on the streets.
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However, his life began to change due to the "ridiculous" kindness of strangers and a serendipitous leaflet he found inside a supermarket.
Speaking to the ECHO he said: "The one time when I felt closest to despair I was lying in a shelter on the promenade and it starting raining in and I thought 'if you had any sense you would move'. I thought that if I stayed here I would get pneumonia and it will make the end come quicker and so I did not move. It was the way I felt at the time.
"People will say I'm unrelentingly cheerful but I'm down 70% of the time and I mask it. The other 20% of the time I'm manic and I feel like I can take on the world and about 10% of the time I'm like everybody else."
However, even though David struggled during his time on the streets he enjoyed the "freedom" of a more nomadic lifestyle and was moved by the small charitable acts of strangers.
David who is originally from Oldham said: "Most of my interactions were positive because I don't drink or take illicit substances. I remember a little girl coming up to me with a packet of biscuits and once a drunk plasterer gave me £40 after a fight with his girlfriend so those moments helped."
The tides began to turn for David when in Morrisons he stumbled upon a leaflet for the Crisis Café which offers drop-in sessions to give adults a place of safety as an alternative to A&E. Then he was referred to the local homeless shelter Light for Life helped him find hotel accommodation in Southport in November 2021.
He said: "It was beginning, at that time of year, to get dark earlier and being in a shelter on the promenade I was conscious that there was a long time where it was dark and very bleak. So the café seemed almost like a place of refuge. I would not say I found a family here but I do feel I have connections to people and the area which I have not had."
David has been placed into accommodation in Sefton and decided to give back to the Crisis Café by volunteering at their café in Crosby. He is now hoping to become a mental health advocate.
David said: "Never give up it may be difficult to access services but keep pushing and you will get there. These days a lot of work falls on voluntary orginsations but the help is there, you just have to keep trying."
If anyone would like more information on the Crisis Café it can be found here.
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