10 YORKSHIRE MASON AUTUMN 2024
Living in Selby, and as a Freemason, I wanted to
raise money for SleepSafe Selby, a charity which
supports people who have been made
homeless and provides practical help for them
at an awful time in their lives when they need it
most. So, I decided to experience some of what
a person who is homeless might go through
and ask my friends and colleagues to sponsor
me… so here are some notes and observations
on my rough-sleeping journey over the last
week of May.
On the Monday night I ended up not sleeping at
all and I talked to three homeless lads outside
McDonald's. I was asking about their experiences
and their day-to-day activities, before getting
caught short in bad rain at 6 am. Not being
prepared for this, I had no option but to dart from
doorway to doorway until I found cover at a bus
shelter.
On Tuesday when I had dried off and with
nowhere to go, I realised I had plenty of time but
with nothing to do. So I went for a walk down the
Selby canal. This eventually turned into
completing the Selby Horseshoe Walk,
something I have done before but in completely
different circumstances. I was by now very tired,
and I still had six hours till dusk, so I walked the
pavements of Selby until nightfall. I slept in a
doorway.
On Wednesday it rained all day. Luckily, I had
found somewhere to get cover, but being stuck
in at the same spot for 24 hours isn't fun. My
clothes were wet and damp from having to go
from the shelter to use the toilet and to get fresh
drinking water.
Wednesday night was the coldest yet. I had a damp
jumper on, and trying to sleep on cold solid
concrete is 10 times worse than sleeping on the
wooden benches. I had continually broken sleep as
I had to constantly turn over every 20 minutes -
whichever body part, arms, sides or back, was in
contact with the concrete floor, went numb.
Thursday was hard. Having only an hour of broken
sleep starts to take its toll. Not to mention the
feelings of isolation and being lonely. I was cold and
damp, and by now after days of walking miles in the
same clothes, very sore. I will spare the details, but I
had got rubbed raw in places I never imagined.
Every step was torture when walking with blistered
feet. And sitting wasn't pleasant too.
On Thursday at about 4 pm I had hit a wall and was
very down. Luckily, my best friend Sam called and
said he would join me that night. Peter Franks
called as well to meet me with a warm coffee and a
slice of pizza. It's these moments that kept me
going.
On the Saturday morning, after getting a good
nights' sleep at home on Friday, we had a Coffee
Morning in the Masonic Hall in Selby. Friends had
brought cakes, we ran a raffle, and the total amount
raised with all the very generous donations and
sponsorship, was over £2800 – a big thank you to
everyone who helped out.
Charity Begins at Home
Dave Hampson