Top Gear star Paddy McGuinness has teamed up with an old childhood friend to help the poor and homeless amid the cost of living crisis.
The actor and comedian turns up to do what he can to lift spirits among the needy using foodbanks and soup kitchens rung by his pal’s charity.
And he was at it’s Christmas party on Thursday, cracking jokes and posing for selfies with astonished homeless guests as they tucked into their festive dinner.
Paddy, 49, grew up in the terraced streets of Bolton with Billa Ahmed, 52, who set up the Homeless Aid UK charity in 2017, at first helping people living on the streets in Bolton and Greater Manchester.
Now it also runs soup kitchens and food banks as far away as London and Glasgow.
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Speaking at the party Paddy said: “I’ve known Billa, since I was a kid, he lived on the next street to me.
“I was doing Top Gear in Bolton a few years ago when I bumped into him, he told me what he was doing and to come down, so I did.
“I remember the length of the queue was shocking and now that I have come back it’s even busier. Admiration Weirdly, it’s a lovely atmosphere in here but tinged with sadness because you don’t want it to be full, but it is.
“It is a lovely evening, but I wish we didn’t have to do it.”
He has nothing but admiration and praise for his old childhood mate and his volunteer helpers.
“I’m just here to say hello, I’m minimal,” says the TV host.
“These guys are the ones that do it 24/7 and the only thing I can offer here is selfies.”
Billa said the increase in people needing the charity’s help in the cost of living crisis is “frightening”.
Even people with jobs are now turning up. “We are seeing families and the elderly coming to us which has never happened before,” said Billa.
“We know of working people whose money has run out before their monthly pay cheque is due who have to turn to us for help. It is quite frightening. We are in unprecedented times.”
He’s glad of all the help he can get – and so happy he bumped into his old friend.
“Me and Paddy played together as kids, but I didn’t meet him again until 2017 when we threw out arms around each other and remembered the times we shared. Paddy is one of the most humble people I have ever met.
“I told him what I was doing and he said he would help me but he did not want anyone to know.
“He’s been helping for years. At our Christmas party with homeless people and he did everything they asked of him.
“He was making them laugh with ‘no likey’ jokes and he posed for selfies for anyone who had a phone. Most didn’t but for those he gave them an autograph.
“He never turned anyone away. Everybody loved him.”
Billa’s charity not only provides food but clothing, shoes, toiletries, bedding –anything that those in need might want on a day-to-day basis.
And that’s been vital during the recent freezing weather. Although much of the country is set to see milder temperatures in the coming days an amber weather warning was issued by the Met Office for the north of England yesterday with more snow and blizzards predicted.
But Billa, a Muslim father of three who works as a graphic designer, pledged: “No-one will die of the cold in my town this winter.”
He says he is helped by the generosity of people across the country who donate money or belongings to the charity to help those worse off than themselves.
Supermarkets Morrisons and Asda regularly give them non-perishable foods, businesses provide services such as painting the livery on their vans for free and local councils work with the charity to ensure people are taken off the streets and given somewhere warm to stay.
Billa says he’s angry there is no joined-up thinking from the Government on the plight of the poor and the homeless.
He said: “Councils like Bolton are brilliant and have worked tirelessly with us to help ensure nobody ends up sleeping on the streets but that is not a nationwide picture. We do not have enough affordable housing and the pandemic has made things worse. Nobody wants to address the problem full on.”
One of those helped by the charity is Raynor Howcroft, 38. He said: “Living on the streets is horrible. I am not used to it. I came from a proper family and I find it embarrassing that I need help.”
And there are others who you would never imagine could possibly fall so low.
Like former high-flyer Mo who has an MA from the University of London, and worked for a corporate finance company in the city before moving to Manchester when the cost of housing in the capital got too much.
He says: “Our company survived the first wave of the pandemic but when the second wave came along I got fired along with a lot of other people. We got reduced from 400 to 40.
“I was married but when the savings ran out she left me.
"That was it. I was on my own – and when the marriage broke down I broke down . I was too ashamed to ask anyone for help so I ended up walking the streets.
“Last winter I was found in a park freezing. The people who found me said I was half dead and took me to hospital where I recovered.
“But then I was sent back out on the streets again because no-one knew what to do with me. It was not long before I collapsed again. But these people from Homeless Aid found me and they have looked after me.
“They have saved my life. They are like close family to me now and I cannot thank them enough.”
