Richard and Wayne were friends as young boys. They lost touch. When they met up again they were both living on the streets, making ends meet selling the Big Issue... they told to reporter, Ray Kershaw their story.
Richard lost all his family in a car accident when he was sixteen and just about to leave school. His parents hadn’t taken out any life insurance policies to help their children financially in the event of their death and Richard was left without a penny. The only help he got was with their funeral expenses. He explains what happened, "I went into depression. It was really really hard at the beginning. I lost the house, I lost everything and ended up on the streets." At first, in the summer, Richard found the life not too bad, "But trying to get to sleep at night in a busy precinct - you’d just be drifting off to sleep, and then waking up, because there’s always somebody out there who’s going to give a booting - like drunken lads and that lot who see us as scum... They won’t think twice about kicking you - I were down enough then and I don’t need to be kicked and told I’m scum and rubbish.."
Richard's friend, Wayne, is twenty-seven, and has been selling the Big Issue for about four years. He and Richard have known each other since Richard was a small boy who came with his dad to the club where Wayne worked. Richard was about seven years old when Wayne taught him how to play pool and they became close friends in spite of the age difference. When Wayne got married, he drifted away from his friends and he and Richard lost touch. When they met up again it was in very different circumstances. He was sharing a squat with another Big Issue vendor, Sean. Sean invited Wayne to stay, and Richard and Wayne rekindled their old friendship. Richard too, took on the mantle of a Big Issue vendor.
Richard and Wayne found in each other a route back to happier memories. Richard recalls, "We’re two grown men now, but it were nice to know that someone knew me and me parents before everything happened."
The two men help each other out now, lending each other money for food and rent for the hostel. Wayne, "If I have no money, he’ll lend me it, if he has no money I’ll lend him it. If we’ve got no money for food, we’ll try to work up enough to split between us. I’ll help him pay his rent at the hostel and he’ll help me. Whatever money Richard earns is mine, and whatever I earn is Richard’s. Even if someone buys me a drink, I’ll drink half then I’ll go over the road where Richard’s selling his Big Issue, and give him the other half."
Life has dropped into a routine, "I wake up, get ready, sell all day, then go back to the hostel and watch telly." There’s no social life. In a rather weary voice, Richard explains that girls simply aren’t interested in a Big Issue seller, "They don’t take a second glance at you - they’ll totally ignore you."
Wayne blames himself for his situation, "I feel I’ve let myself down. It’s my fault I’ve ended up in this situation." Wayne was in a relationship which broke down. He lost his house, and a well-paid job in a printers, and found himself out on the streets. "It all came as a quick sharp shock - I didn’t really know what to do. To go from a good job to living on the streets in just the clothes I stand in, I feel really ashamed. I can hear people’s comments - ‘look at the state of him’ - and it does hurt. I'm closer to Richard than I am to my own family now. Richard is my friend."
Richard is more broadly philosophic than his friend. When his parents died, he felt there was little point going on, but now he hopes to have a child of his own one day. "No-one knows what’s going to happen in the future. What’s in the past is past. Life’s what you make it, at the end of the day, so make it a good one," although he says this in a rather flat voice, not loaded with conviction or enthusiasm.
