Support CentrePoint with The Big Facebook Treasure Hunt 13/12/15

It's particularly difficult to imagine homeless young people at Christmas. As the nights draw in and the weather turns, too many people, many of them barely more than children, are trying to keep warm and dry. As I write this, the wind is howling outside and I wonder how on earth anyone could cope without somewhere warm to go. How do you survive without being able to sleep? How terrifying must it be to live without a front door between you and the outside world every night? Like many of you, I am a mum, first and foremost. My children are my world, it doesn't matter how old they are, I will still want to protect them and I will still worry about them.
Those young people out there, tonight, should be worrying about why the Sky box always plays up when it rains, or what on earth Simon Cowell was talking about on The X Factor. They should be moaning because they have to put their washing away, not pleading with strangers for enough money for a hot drink.

It actually really winds me up that homlessness is still such a huge issue in this country. My son is reading a book at school called Street Child, all about the harsh conditions in Victorian England. It is a sad fact that. for some people, life hasn't changed all that much. There are a lot of reasons why a person can suddenly find themselves without a home. It can be as straightforward as a family relationship breakdown or even a job redundancy. So easy, and suddenly you have no fixed abode. Life gets harder then, because that term; 'No Fixed Abode' makes it harder to get a job and access services that the rest of us take for granted. All of that is hard enough to deal with, but how much worse must it be when the Christmas season starts? All around you crowds of people are hauling huge bags, brimming with treats and gifts for the festive season and the Christmas markets fill the streets with delicious smells. Everyone is happy and celebrating and all you want is to not be cold. To not be scared. To not be hungry. And, probably, most of all, to not be demoralised, humiliated and ignored every single day. 

So, that's all horribly depressing. But it's Christmas, so I think we need to try and turn it around a bit. If only for a few days, I want to try to make life a bit better for our fellow human beings. With your help, we can give as many homeless people as possible a little bit of Christmas, by raising money for Centrepoint's Christmas Initiative, which provides vital support in London, Oxford and Sunderland, particularly for young people, and Bristol's Caring at Christmas campaign which  looks after the homeless of Bristol. Both these charities provide shelter, food and warmth for displaced individuals  and give them a little comfort and self esteem in the process. I'm organising a Charity Treasure Hunt on Facebook, to raise money for both these charities and have some fun in the process. The event will take place on the 13th of December and you can join the Event Page here. Everyone who joins the event will be given a series of questions which they will have to visit various websites to find the answers to. The websites you visit will be sponsoring the event, and that's where our fundraising will come from. I should probably point out that the reason I've done it this way, is because you are not allowed to charge people to enter a competition, unless you have a gambling licence. So this is a good way to raise money, whilst not charging competitors and getting into bother. If you know a blog or company that might like to donate, in return for lots of visitors to their website, they can get in touch with me via the contact page at the top of the blog. I very much hope as many people as possible will join us on the night, to help make this event a big success and raise as much money as we can.