Advertisement
For £35 you can help a vendor keep themselves warm, dry, fed, earning and progressing
BUY A VENDOR SUPPORT KIT
News

Prince William has been meeting Big Issue vendors again

Just days after Prince William tried his hand at selling The Big Issue, the future king bumped into another vendor in Cambridge.

Eamonn Kelly meets Prince William and wife Kate

Kate and William at Christ the Redeemer church, Newmarket Road, Cambridge. They are shown with Big Issue vendor Eamonn Kelly who welcomed the pair to the nearby pod home where he has lived for two years. Image: CambridgeshireLive

Prince William hit the headlines earlier this month after his spell selling The Big Issue – now it has been revealed the future king has caught up with another vendor just days later.  

During a visit to modular homes development Jimmy’s in Cambridge, William, this time with Catherine, posed with our man Eamonn Kelly after spending 45 minutes chatting to the vendor on his sofa on June 23.

Kelly, 52, who sells The Big Issue on Trinity Street in the city, has lived in the pod for two years and was happy to welcome the royal couple into his home as part of William’s continued education on homelessness.

“I always liked William because he reminds me of his mum and he is like her: he’s loyal, he’s down-to-earth and he doesn’t judge you. I told him my mum died five months ago and he told me he knows what that’s like. He shook my hand and told me it doesn’t get any easier,” said Eamonn, who has been selling The Big Issue magazine for 15 years.

“He’s a down-to-earth guy. We spoke about homelessness and he told he’d never seen a place as clean as my pod. I said I try!  I told him how I had a crack habit for six years but now I’m clean as a whistle”.

Prince William tried his hand at selling The Big Issue earlier in June alongside London seller Dave Martin.

Advertisement
Advertisement
Prince WIlliam and Big Issue seller Dave Martin in red Big Issue hats and tabards stand in conversation as an elderly woman walks past
A slow start gave Prince William and Big Issue seller Dave Martin a chance to chat. Image: Andy Parsons/Big Issue

The future monarch, who donned the iconic red tabard as part of his 40th birthday celebrations said he “refused to believe that homelessness is an irrevocable fact of life” after his spell selling the magazine.

“I wanted to experience the other side and see what it was like to be a Big Issue vendor. My time was truly eye opening,” said William. “ I was lucky to join Dave on a warm, sunny day in June. People recognised a familiar face and were happy to give me the time of day. But that isn’t the case for the vast majority of Big Issue vendors.”

Read more about what happened when Prince William sold The Big Issue:

Advertisement

Change a vendor's life this Christmas

This Christmas, 3.8 million people across the UK will be facing extreme poverty. Thousands of those struggling will turn to selling the Big Issue as a vital source of income - they need your support to earn and lift themselves out of poverty.

Recommended for you

View all
Mum-of-three hit with 'revenge eviction' after asking for repairs: 'It felt like the end of the world'
Hazell and her three kids faced homelessness until Shelter stepped in
Renting

Mum-of-three hit with 'revenge eviction' after asking for repairs: 'It felt like the end of the world'

Malala Yousafzai on taking on the Taliban and why 'storytelling is the soul of activism'
Malala Yousafzai
Activism

Malala Yousafzai on taking on the Taliban and why 'storytelling is the soul of activism'

Winter fuel benefit cuts will send pensioners to hospital, DWP warned: 'It's a political choice'
a view from above of an older person with white hair eating out of a pot
Winter fuel payment

Winter fuel benefit cuts will send pensioners to hospital, DWP warned: 'It's a political choice'

Ghosts star Charlotte Ritchie: 'It's a tragedy people can't afford their essentials'
Charlotte Ritchie at Trussell food bank
Food banks

Ghosts star Charlotte Ritchie: 'It's a tragedy people can't afford their essentials'

Most Popular

Read All
Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits
Renters: A mortgage lender's window advertising buy-to-let products
1.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal
Pound coins on a piece of paper with disability living allowancve
2.

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over

Strike dates 2023: From train drivers to NHS doctors, here are the dates to know
4.

Strike dates 2023: From train drivers to NHS doctors, here are the dates to know