Wincham and Pickmere teenagers help the homeless

Friends Becky Seymour, from Wincham, and Amber Glaister, from Pickmere, raised £100 to buy everyday essentials, which they donated to homeless people in the city centre.

The 15-year-olds are pupils at Holmes Chapel Comprehensive School, and organised a series of fundraising events after being shocked by the rising number of people living on Manchester’s streets.

They made and sold cupcakes and biscuits to Wincham residents, washed residents’ cars and put together a Christmas hamper which they raffled off.

When they had raised £100 they used the money to buy items including toothpaste and toothbrushes, soap, deodorant, lip balm, cotton buds, tissues, chewing gum, packets of cereal, bars of chocolate and bottles of water.

They also bought blankets, which they handed out with bags full of items to 10 homeless people in the centre of Manchester, and included in the bags details of charities which help homeless people.

They were accompanied by Becky’s parents Linda and Robert, and her dad filmed the girls handing out the bags, as well as the fundraising events, which can be seen on You Tube.

The videos can be seen at ‘2 Girls Help The World – Raising Money to Help the Homeless.’ “When I had been to Manchester I had noticed how many homeless people there were, and felt really sorry for them and thought they deserved better,” said Becky.

“You don’t know their stories, and people shouldn’t judge them as they could be homeless for any number of reasons.

“We wanted to film what we were doing for You Tube to make people aware of the little things you can do for homeless people.

“The people we gave the bags to were men in their 20s to 40s, and thanked us for the things.

“We started to raise money in September, and went into Manchester on Good Friday to hand out the items and the blankets.

“We feel proud to have raised the money and to have done something to help homeless people.”