Footballer delivers beds to children in need
ZarachA footballer who helped deliver beds to children having to sleep on floors or in bath tubs said he will never forget the look on their faces.
Middlesbrough striker Tommy Conway said he wanted to have an "impact" on young lives by supporting the charity Zarach, which is trying to end child bed poverty and has delivered about 16,000 beds nationally.
Research published by children's charity Barnardo's in 2023 estimated nearly 900,000 children in the UK had to share a bed or sleep on the floor.
The twenty-three-year-old told Radio Tees that during his first delivery to two boys "you could see their faces light up" when they received free beds and pyjamas.
He said he had never previously understood "the circumstances that some kids live in and go through on a day-to-day basis in terms of not having a bed" and living in "such conditions".
He said being well rested was important for his was career and he wanted to help "those kids going to school without sleep".
Headteacher Bex Wilson founded the charity after finding out one of her pupils did not have a bed and she had since supplied beds to children across the country.
She said "a lovely little boy" was not having a great day and had been "unkind" to a friend, which was out of character.
He told her he was "always tired" and did not have a bed.
After realising the boy's siblings also did not have beds, with the help of family and friends she sourced three beds with "what spare cash" she had.
'More funding needed'
Wilson said while her charity work gives her hope, more funding was needed to make a difference to children sleeping without beds across the country.
"If a child is turning up at school and they don't have a full tummy and a good night's sleep, we just need to do more," she said.
She said that improving sleep for children was important for their education to "break the cycle of poverty".
"Tommy has gone above and beyond and he has done it off his own back," Wilson said.
"Some of the [social media] posts that he's shared about the work that we do and the response that we've had from that has been absolutely priceless for a charity of our size," she added.
