Geordie star Vicky Pattison stays up all night in youth homelessness challenge
The Queen of the Jungle and Geordie Shore original, Vicky Pattison, is hosting the online fundraising event STAY:UP, organised by youth homelessness charity Centrepoint. She is asking fundraisers to stay awake alongside her all night from 8pm tonight until 8am on Saturday.
Vicky will be keeping herself busy, and viewers entertained, with a different activity every hour including cooking, exercising, playing games and interacting with all the participants across the country, taking part in their own STAY:UP challenges.
This isn't the first time the Geordie lass has raised awareness for homeless young people and raised money for Centrepoint, as she slept out in Sunderland with 100 volunteers back in 2017.
The charity supports 15,000 vulnerable young people a year by providing accommodation, teaching valuable life skills, tackling their physical and mental health issues and working with them to get them into education or employment.
Vicky says, "This year I wanted to raise money for homeless young people because COVID-19 has meant that more young people are losing their jobs, struggling to pay their rent and becoming devastatingly homeless.
"I'm staying up and keeping myself entertained with a variety of activities. I have my extremely complex Harry Potter jigsaw ready and my space hopper to keep me awake and I want everyone to get behind me and the charity Centrepoint. There's still time for people to get involved and stay awake with me all night to raise money for vulnerable young people and help them rebuild their lives and look forward to the future."
Helpline demand increased by a third
Centrepoint says before the pandemic, youth homelessness was at a crisis point - estimating that over 120,000 young people were facing homelessness between 2019/20, an increase of more than 10,000 on the previous year. Over the past year, Centrepoint found that calls to its Helpline from young people worried about homelessness increased by about a third and demand for urgent support including food packages was higher in 2020-2021 than in the previous year.
The money raised this year will go towards Centrepoint's hostels providing homeless young people safe and stable accommodation while teaching them the skills needed to live independently, support for homeless young people's physical and mental health and will provide them access to training and education.