Nigel Hollander is giving up his time to help people who need it.
The 78-year-old, from Sale, has made it his mission to battle poverty, providing food and other essentials to people in his own community who are struggling.
Nigel's goal is to help as many people begging and rough sleeping as he possibly can.
Things changed for the father-of-two when he saw a homeless man begging on Market Street and, instead of ignoring him, decided to buy him some food and strike up a conversation. He then began to notice more and more people begging and rough sleeping in his own community.
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He started out buying meal deals from Tesco and Sainsburys and hot drinks on colder days. Then he started cooking meals at home and bringing them to the people he kept seeing on the streets.
"You know I have a lot of spare time," he said. "I'm not really doing much with it. I have travelled, although I am planning to visit Kenya over the summer to help more of those in need.
"What inspired me to do it was through YouTube. I'm new to it and was just scrolling and saw a video pop up on my 'recommended' on a guy who dropped money in front of a homeless person and filmed him to see how he would spend it.
"I used to be homeless when I was in my 20s and I got really angry that they were filming him. Why can't he just give him the money and leave him be?
"That just made me want to go out and help a person without having to flaunt it all over social media. Imagine how that homeless bloke feels like?"
New research from Shelter shows that there are currently 271,000 individuals who are homeless in England with almost half being children (123,000).
Excluding London, Manchester has the second worst rate of homelessness in the country with Luton being first. It is estimated by Shelter that one in 74 people in Manchester are homeless.
After 'getting into trouble in youth', Nigel was homeless for 4 years after turning 21, sleeping on the streets and squatting and moving between friends' homes.
"It was a tough experience, knowing anything could happen to you. It helped shape me into the man I am today," he says now.
"I want to do more," Nigel adds. "I want to leave a legacy related to helping people. The more I do it, the more I want to do it and I'm glad I am. I hope I can inspire others."
Nigel wants to start working with a team of volunteers to cook and distribute meals to the homeless people in his community as well as blankets and pillows.
"If I can get more people to assist me with this, we could open a charity. It can reach different parts of the country so I hope to expand the help."
A spokesperson for Trafford Council said: “Trafford Council, through its Housing Options Service Trafford (HOST) department, is totally committed to helping rough sleepers off the streets and assisting homeless people to find new accommodation.
Our rough sleepers team patrol the streets of Sale, and the rest of the borough, on a regular basis and are committed to helping anyone they find sleeping on the streets.
Anyone who wishes to speak to our HOST team regarding new accommodation can call 0161 912 2230 to book an appointment. For more information, people can go to the website Rough sleeping (trafford.gov.uk).”
You can contact Nigel at nigelhollander687@gmail.com or call 0161 234 4692 for more assistance.
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