TRACY is one of the many who has benefited from A Bed Every Night, a scheme designed to help people off the streets and provide them with somewhere safe and warm...

“I was staying in Bolton town centre in a derelict building. Horrible, dark, wet, creepy, scary. You don’t feel 100 per cent, you feel sick, hungry. You get bad stomach ache, you don’t want to do anything, you just want to curl up in a ball and die. Quietly. Get it over with, put yourself out of your misery basically. That’s how I’ve felt in the past. It’s very difficult. I’m surprised I coped but you just do. I don’t know how but you just get on with it. You have to.

The Bolton News:

Tracy, a former rough sleeper in Bolton.

“I was staying somewhere once in an empty building and I woke up and it was on fire. l slept in a suitcase. I was slimmer than I am now but I crouched up in my suitcase and pulled the bit that you zip, over me. Took them an hour to put the flames out. I was broken, it was my home, you know what I mean? Sounds mad, but it was my home. I did ring the fire brigade. One of the fire brigade came back with a sandwich for me and a hot cup of coffee. He said you shouldn’t be on the streets.

“A Bed Every Night has made me emotionally better. Physically I’m better off. It’s just a good feeling when you’ve got a bed every night. Security, it’s a good feeling. I can wake up in the morning knowing I’m not going to get wet, or have a rat jumping over me, or have someone trying to rob me. No amount of money can buy that smile on your face in the morning.

“I just recently got back in touch with my son and he’s very proud of me. I put a new profile picture on Facebook and everyone commented how good I looked, and my son got in touch and rang me up. Every time I get up in the morning I think of him and I’ve got a smile on my face.

“Everything is looking good for me at the moment and I just want it to stay like that. You’d be surprised, people don’t tell you that they’ve donated but when you find out, but when you find out you think wow, I didn’t know that. I wouldn’t be here know if it wasn’t for all of those kind of people, honestly, I wouldn’t.

“All I want is my own front door and then I’ll be happy, I can have a future then. I’m looking forward to it. I can smile, and I couldn’t smile before. You just pick yourself up and carry on. I’ve been on the streets, I’ve been the lowest I’v ever been, so if I can do that and still be here I can take anything on now can’t I really? I can do anything if I put my mind to it.

“I’m not going anywhere yet, me. I’m not, no. Still got plenty of life left in me.”