Cardinal Newman College students raise money for homelessness by sleeping under the stars

Students dressed up in onesies which kept them warm during the cold night.

A group from Cardinal Newman College in Preston have raised more than £1,700 for homelessness.

Staff and students from the college took part in a ‘big sleep out’ to fundraise for homelessness charity, Shelter.

On 19 April, at 7:30pm, 27 people arrived on the college grounds to spend the night under the stars to raise awareness for people who may experience rough sleeping.

The initiative was organised and run by the Newman Against Poverty Group and the Equality and Diversity Team.

The group were also supported by homelessness charity, Shelter who spoke to the students about how they would spend the money, housing rights and the issues within the current law that they are campaigning to help change.

After hearing from Shelter, the students took part in activities relating to the pressures of affording to run a house, particularly with the cost of living crisis.

They then got into their sleeping bags and had an average of just three and a half hours of sleep each, even waking up to frost.

Those taking part slept in sleeping bags all night.

Calista Mullin, Assistant Head of Law who helped to organise the event said: “The students who took part were amazing and a credit to the College. A massive thank you to Kelly Illingworth-Turner, Bernice Taylor, Georgia Wright, Emma Watts, Ashely Hurst, Ian Bruce and Andrew Salter for their support and for making what could have been an extremely stressful experience, an overwhelmingly positive one.

“Despite this, I can say with certainty that all those who took part will have been grateful for their own beds on Saturday evening.”

The students managed to stay outside for the entire night. People can still donate via their Just Giving page.

“I was so unbelievably proud of the team, they played fantastically well and really deserved to win!”

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