Reality TV star Vicky Pattison slept out for a night at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show to highlight the reality of youth homelessness and the work done by Centrepoint to counteract it.
The TV presenter, who rose to fame on Geordie Shore before winning I’m A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here, slept in a garden designed for the charity featuring a partly-demolished house surrounded by weeds and a fallen tree.
She said she wanted to raise the issue which left 129,000 young poeple either homeless or at risk of being homeless last year, adding: “This garden is not intended to be pretty but then neither is youth homelessness.
“I’ve supported Centrepoint for around six years now and I can’t tell you enough how inspiring the work they do is”.
She said: “I won’t insult those who are forced to sleep rough by suggesting that by sleeping outside for one night I have any idea about what they experience.
“The Sleep Out does not set out to replicate what it’s like to sleep rough but gives an idea of the isolating situation a lot of young people find themselves in, while also supporting those who face this as a reality.”
The garden won a prestigious Gold Medal at the show for its designer Cleve West who was making his return to the annual event for the first time in seven years.
The designer, who has twice the best in show award at the RHS, said: “After 11 years of creating show gardens I’d decided I wouldn’t do another Chelsea garden unless it was for charity, so working with Centrepoint ticked a few important boxes for me.”
