A homeless 73-year-old woman has been given a place to stay in Chester after a huge response to a post about her on Facebook.
She had been sleeping in her car with everything she owned since the end of November due to being evicted from her home in Northwich .
Now Chester Aid to the Homeless (CATH) have found the woman a flat in the city centre after The Share Shop's post about her received more than 1,700 shares.
Adam Dandy, co-founder of the Northgate Street charity shop, said their page was ‘inundated’ with offers to give her a place to stay.
He added: “CATH do such good work and she’s such a lovely lady so it’s great she’s now got a place to stay.
“The response was amazing, I think about 90,000 people have seen the post.
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“As soon as we put it out the page was inundated, we had people offering their spare rooms, money and even for her to have Sunday roast with their families.”
The woman first went into The Share Shop on Thursday (March 18) and asked if they had any ‘suspended coffees’ available.
A scheme at the charity store allows customers to buy a coffee for themselves and one other, which is put on a tab for someone in need to claim later.
She started chatting to Adam where she told him she had been evicted from her home of 23 years in Northwich in November.
'Too proud to ask for help'
Adam said: “She said she had let things get on top of her and been too proud to ask for help.
“Lots of people come in to the shop and say similar things. Homelessness affects everyone of all classes, it could happen to anyone.”
The 73-year-old then packed all of her belongings into her car and drove to Chester, where for months she had stayed and slept in her vehicle outside Aldi supermarket in Boughton.
She said she preferred to stay there rather than find an alternative because she had all of her things with her.
After not wanting to let her leave on Thursday, volunteers at The Share Shop made the woman promise to return the next morning so they could get her some help.
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They contacted CATH, who had been working behind the scenes on her case, and the homelessness charity was able to provide a happy ending and get her into the city centre flat on Friday afternoon.
Adam said Share has set up a Paypal page for the woman to help her at her new home and will match any donations. So far more than £250 has been raised.
'We knew the public could be amazing'
He said: “We knew the public could be amazing because that’s what helped us get the shop up and running in the first place.
“Some people who come in just think there’s no light at the end of the tunnel. Hopefully we can help and try to get more people off the streets and back into work.”
For more information visit the Share Shop Chester Facebook page.
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