Mark Stevenson, M&S Foodhall, Canterbury, Kent

Image: Exposure Photo Agency

Originally I sold the magazine from the mid-1990s but then I stopped for 12 years, settled down with a missus. I started back up again about eight years ago. I’ve now been in Canterbury for about six years and been on this pitch for about four years since we opened up after the first lockdown.

I do enjoy it. I’ve been a street trader all my life so I’m not a Big Issue seller in my head, I’m a street trader still. It keeps me out of the house and among people. I used to travel the country with helium balloons. I used to sell all kinds of stuff on the markets around London on Portobello Road, Petticoat Lane, those kinds of places. I’d like to think I’m a decent salesman!

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I’ve worked a lot of towns with the magazine, from Chelmsford to Margate, over the years. This is the only town I know where I get given ice cream in the summer. Selling in the hot weather can be the worst time. Everyone’s basically on their holiday and I’ve actually been here and I’ve had passers-by say to each other: “I wouldn’t mind being homeless in this heat.” I was homeless for a couple of months over the summer and my main issue and hassle was making sure I had water throughout the night.

I’m aiming to save up for a mobility scooter because I can hardly walk. Even three-year-olds tell me to hurry up. It’s a few hundred quid if you want a good one and I’ll probably have to wait until Christmas. I blame struggling with mobility on balloon selling. I used to have to stand from nine until four o’clock and then walk a carnival route four or five times. That didn’t help. To be honest, I’ve just got myself a chair to sell the magazine. I’ve got hypermobility and sciatica in both legs and lower back pain. It’s painful, and as an ex-drug addict I don’t really take many painkillers for it. I just live with it.

I’ll be 60 in May and I probably won’t do anything to mark it but I’m hoping the kids will. I’ve been dropping hints the past two or three years of ‘I want this’ or ‘I want that’. I’ve got a lot of kids aged between 34 and seven. They need to save up their pocket money and chip in to take me for a meal! 

I’ve also got a dog, a Patterdale terrier called Sox, who I’ve had for about three years. A lot of people remember my old dog called Stormzy. I don’t bring her out with me no more because she developed arthritis. But Sox is very popular, I’ve had her since she was a puppy and she’s been coming out with me since she was two months old. Everyone who knows her has known her from a pup. We get a lot of people stopping and chatting to the dog – they don’t say a word to me! 

Sox had to be put in a muzzle last year after she bit a security guard. There was a big petition and everything going around on Facebook in the local Canterbury community group and I was quite humbled by it actually, because over 3,000 people signed the petition. Thankfully, the police and the security were throwing a ball for her all over the square. They all knew how good she is so the muzzle was on for about a month. She’s good company – why else do we have dogs? She gets me out of the house so I’m not sat indoors all night.

I’d love to say to all my customers publicly: thank you. Thank you for helping me. Thank you for the support over the years, and let’s hope it continues.

Interview: Liam Geraghty

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M&S Foodhall, Lambeth Rd, Canterbury, UK