Recruitment
“Chris’ selfless approach to helping the homeless in his spare time is truly inspiring.
As well as working as a relief signaller based in Preston Bamber Bridge, he set up United Blackpool and coordinates a group of 40 volunteers who reach out to vulnerable rough sleepers in his home town.
This also involves helping to run a soup kitchen three nights a week. Since his group was founded it has helped 25 people turn their lives around, finding them accommodation and stability.
Chris’ altruism is becoming increasingly recognised within and outside of Network Rail.
In September he was named as one of 125 ‘Local Heroes’ by newspaper the Blackpool Gazette as part of their special commemorations of Blackpool Tower’s 125th anniversary.
In March Chris won a ‘Backbone of Britain’ award in the ‘Customer Focus – Community’ category in Network Rail’s London North Western route’s inaugural recognition event.
On the back of this Chris is now the North West & Central region’s charity ambassador, providing his expertise to our station teams and railway staff about how to break the stigma around homeless people and the best way Network Rail as an organisation can help.
His work now spreads much wider than his hometown with some very exciting projects in the pipeline to encourage the rail industry to take part in charitable causes for homeless people.“
“Chris is an absolute inspiration. He works full time as a signaller but finds the time outside of work to look after the homeless in his town. Last year Chris started his own homeless organisation in Blackpool called United Blackpool. He goes out every week onto the streets feeding homeless people. Not only does he feed them, but he engages with them, spending plenty of time with each person making them feel valued. He helps get them off the street and into accommodation. He also helps get them clean of any drugs they might be on. Since September 2018 he has rehomed over 25 people!
Chris Also runs a soup kitchen and charity in Blackpool called Amazing Graze. They feed over 15000 people a year.
Chris has lots of plans in the pipeline which includes a sponsored sleep out in December where he intends to raise enough money to keep the soup kitchen running for another year.
He also goes into schools to raise awareness about homelessness and to break the social stigmas surrounding it.
Chris spends all his spare time and money on this cause which is unbelievable. I'm proud to be his friend.“
“Just a short note to say that I thought the Awards on Saturday night were superbly done and a great event for everyone. Nicely informal, there was never any of the stuffiness that has accompanied some of the Awards ceremonies that I have been used to attending. Particularly laudable was the fact that you got 500 people to your inaugural event, which was an outstanding achievement.”
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