I’m joining the CEO Sleepout for the first time, although their cause of fighting homelessness is one that has always resonated with me. Seeing the impact of the South African charity, Surfers Not Street Children, has led me to want to help here in London.   

It can be very easy to detach oneself from the very real societal problems happening around you, particularly when you’re time poor, as most are in the business community. I’ve always tried to combat that, working to understand and learn and help people who are homeless the best way I can by volunteering at shelters and food kitchens.

After living in London for over 20 years, I’ve seen the severity of homelessness becoming worse as time goes on. There are plenty of storage facilities where us humans pay for “stuff” to be stored, but there are people who can’t have a warm dry place to sleep. Could that be our problem? Priorities are skewed and need to change. I believe that we need to do much more to support people in that incredibly difficult and often tragic situation; of course, that’s the first step, but it’s much bigger than that. We need to be raising awareness of the larger problem and act proactively with both prevention and rehabilitation.

I’m joining the CEO Sleepout to get a first-hand understanding on how we can truly support these causes, what help really looks like and how we can keep making a difference beyond the event.

Any support will be greatly appreciated. It’s a great cause and you get to hear how I froze my backside off!