On the Victoria Embankment in central London, there is a bench overlooking the River Thames. Jay Flynn, the 42-year-old quizmaster who ran online pub quizzes for hundreds of thousands of people during lockdown, knows it well. It’s where he slept rough for the best part of the two years on the streets of the capital.
“I wasn’t an alcoholic, I wasn’t a drug addict. I was just the pure definition of a homeless person, which is a person without a home,” he says. “My mental health struggles were what led me to that point. I’d gone through a relationship breakdown, I’d fallen out with all of my family and, in my head, I was becoming a burden on my friends. I felt my only option was to end my life – or choose to live on the streets.”
