“When I met Prince William, it pulled me out of wallow”: Cambridge Big Issue vendor reflects on royal hand-up through homelessness project

Monday 7 July – A recent visit from the Prince and Princess of Wales “motivated” Cambridge Big Issue vendor Eamonn Kelly to kick his drug habit, he’s told the Big Issue.

In a new interview with this week’s Big Issue, out now, Kelly shares how Prince William and Princess Catherine’s visit to his ‘modular home’ – a series of self-contained homes with wrap-around support for ex-rough sleepers run by a Cambridge homeless charity – has a profound impact on him.

“I’ve been invited to go to Lambeth Palace in September to talk about modular homes,” Kelly shares. “I’ve got a big thing about them. I’d like to get as many built as I can.

“I used to live in one provided by the homelessness charity Jimmy’s. I even had Prince William and Kate come to visit. Living there gave me a purpose to get up in the morning.

“I’d just lost my mum that February but when I met William, it pulled me out of wallow and got me motivated. I realised I had to get these drugs out of my system. Since then, I’ve not touched anything.”

Eamonn is a regular fixture on the streets of central Cambridge, where he’s sold the Big Issue for many years. “I’ve got loads of customers that believe in me because I’ve been doing this for years,” he tells this week’s magazine.

However, his sales has been heavily disrupted in recent months due to the erection of scaffolding around his pitch in Trinity Street. “It’s very quiet at the minute because they’ve got scaffolding up on my pitch. It is what it is, I’m just trying to do whatever I can. I’ve let the workmen know I was here before them so they need to hurry up!”

“I don’t drink and do drugs now. I’ve been clean for three years. I had a habit for 10 years. But I never robbed, I never thieved. That’s why my people believe in me because I am out there every day. Of course, it spurs me on. It gives me something to get up for in the morning.”

“Without Big Issue, though, I would be a wee bit lost. They have helped me a lot. They’ve got me a cooker, a washing machine, a freezer, a double bed, my blinds. The council flat came unfurnished and it’s a real problem. If I hadn’t have had the help from Big Issue then I would have been in trouble. They’ve also believed me. I don’t take people for granted.”

Eamonn Kelly sells the Big Issue on Trinity Street. You can read more of his story in this week’s Big Issue, which you can buy from him on his pitch, or subscribe through the Big Issue website, where you can select a local vendor to receive 50% of your subscription fee.