イギリスでホームレスの男性が、大変身を遂げたことが話題になっている。1杯のコーヒーのきっかけに、1年後には仕事に就くことができたと、イギリスの大衆紙ミラーなどが報じている。
SHAREが運営する「ShareShop」チェスター店は、飲み物を必要としている誰かのために、事前に料金を支払う「保留コーヒー」という善意のシステムを提供している。今から1年ほど前、1人のホームレスの男性が店舗を訪れた。食べ物と飲み物を求めたので、コーヒーと地元のスーパーマーケットから寄付されたサンドウィッチを手渡した。
この男性は、デイビッド・サイモンズ（31）。北西部のチェスターの路上で暮らし、生活に困窮していた。SHAREは地元の慈善団体と一緒に、デイビッドを支援することを決めた。
生活の面倒を見ながら、社会復帰できるよう、履歴書を書くのを手伝い、面接用のスーツも用意した。こうした献身的なサポートが実を結び、デイビッドは2月に地元のガーデンセンターで働くことが決まった。
デイビッドは、アルコール依存症やホームレスの人たちも、地元ボランティアの支援を得れば「トンネルの先には光がある」ことを知ってほしいと、自分の経験を広めるようSHAREに頼んだ。
SHAREは公式Facebook上で、1年前と現在のデイビッドの写真を公開し、彼の経験や支援の内容などを伝えている。採用面接のためスーツを着たデイビッドは、コーヒーを求めてやって来た時と比べ、まるで別人のようだ。投稿された写真には、「素晴らしい」「おめでとう」などと祝福するコメントが、1000件以上寄せられた。
デイビッドは、デイリーメールの取材に対し「感謝しきれない。面接のために初めてスーツを着た。仕事を始めるのはとても楽しみで、人生が劇的に変わった」と話した。
■関連画像集「ホームレスだった有名人」
ホームレスだった有名人
シルベスター・スタローン(01 of18)
The actor spent three weeks sleeping in New York City\'s Port Authority bus station after being evicted from his apartment. Out of desperation, Stallone took a role in an adult film, which paid $200 and helped him get back on his feet. (credit:Getty)
ジェニファー・ロペス(02 of18)
J.Lo couch-surfed at the age of 18 after her parents disagreed with her decision to pursue a career in Hollywood. \n\n“My mom and I butted heads,” Lopez tells W. “I didn’t want to go to college -- I wanted to try dance full-time. So she and I had a break. I started sleeping on the sofa in the dance studio. I was homeless, but I told her, ‘This is what I have to do.’ A few months later, I landed a job dancing in Europe. When I got back, I booked \'In Living Color.\' I became a Fly Girl and moved to L.A. It all happened in a year.” (credit:Getty)
ハル・ベリー(03 of18)
Berry lived in homeless shelters at the age of 21 after she tried to pursue a Hollywood career, despite her mom\'s disapproval. \"After a month or two, I ran out of money and called her. I said, `Mom, I hate to ask you this, but could you send me some money? I just have rent money. I can\'t eat this week,\" she said in 2007. And she said, I\'m not going to start this calling home asking Mom for money. No. Figure it out or come home.\' I was so mad. I didn\'t speak to her for a year and a half.\" (credit:Getty)
ジム・キャリー(04 of18)
Carrey lived in a van with his family. He told \"Inside the Actor\'s Studio,\" \"My father was a musician who got a \'regular job\' to support his children. When he lost his job that\'s when everything fell apart. We went from \'lower middle class\' to \'poor\'. We were living out of a van. I quit school at age 15 to begin working to help support my family as a janitor. I\'d have a baseball bat on my janitor cart because I was so angry I just wanted to beat the heck out of something.\" (credit:Getty)
ウィリアム・シャトナー(05 of18)
Shatner lived out of his pickup truck following the ending of \"Star Trek.\" He told Details magazine, \"It was the early 1970s and I was recently divorced. I had three kids and was totally broke. I managed to find work back east on the straw-hat circuit—summer stock—but couldn’t afford hotels, so I lived out of the back of my truck, under a hard shell. It had a little stove, a toilet, and I’d drive from theater to theater. The only comfort came from my dog, who sat in the passenger seat and gave me perspective on everything. Otherwise, it would have just been me counting my losses.\" (credit:Getty)
ヒラリー・スワンク(06 of18)
Swank grew up in a trailer park in Bellingham, Wash., before heading to Los Angeles with her mom at the age of 15 to pursue an acting career. The pair lived out of a car, booking auditions over payphones before Swank finally landed some small gigs. She tells CBS, \"[My mom] was at a crossroads. My father and her were getting separated, and she said, \'Let\'s go to California.\' And so $75, and a Mobil card, we drove down to California.\" (credit:Getty)
リル・キム(07 of18)
Before she made it in Hollywood, Lil’ Kim was just getting by in Brooklyn, NY. Her father kicked her out as a teenager, and for a while, Kim was homeless. During her struggle, she met The Notorious B.I.G., who helped her go from a couch-surfing girl to Grammy-winning performer. (credit:Getty)
デビッド・レターマン(08 of18)
Before making it big, Letterman lived out of a red 1973 Chevy pickup truck. (credit:Getty)
ケリー・クラークソン(09 of18)
Before getting her big break on \"American Idol,\" Clarkson lived out of her car after her LA apartment burned down. She allegedly showered daily at a health club where she had a membership. (credit:Getty)
ショーン・パーカー(10 of18)
In an interview with Jimmy Fallon, Parker said that he could \"easily have been a one hit wonder and drifted off into obscurity,\" after Napster, but instead forged on, trying to build a consumer product. Until the PayPal IPO in 2002, Parker was forced to live a vagrant sort of life, \"sleeping on couches,\" and setting up rules \"about how long I\'d freeload off of any one individual.\" (credit:Getty)
サム・ワーシントン(11 of18)
“I was living in a car before I signed up for Avatar,” the Australian actor confessed. (credit:Getty)
ジュエル(12 of18)
Jewel lived a hard life before making it big almost two decades ago. The singer\'s family was poor and lived in a house with no indoor plumbing. She confessed to writing songs while living in a van. \"It was really hard for me to ever think that I was special when I was homeless,\" she told CNN in a recent interview. \"I was writing things, I was writing songs, but I didn\'t think that they were that good. The fact that someone believed in me or thought that my life was special meant a lot to me, because I didn\'t know how to value it.”\n (credit:Getty)
タイラー・ペリー(13 of18)
The actor and director lived in his car after one of his projects flopped in Atlanta. (credit:Getty)
シャニア・トゥエイン(14 of18)
Shania Twain\'s parents had a tumultuous relationship that was only worsened by the family\'s lack of income. In 1979, Twain\'s mother reportedly rounded up her four children and drove more than 400 miles to a Toronto homeless shelter. She was 14 at the time. (credit:Getty)
カルメン・エレクトラ(15 of18)
\"You know, I had a couple of years of being homeless in Hollywood,\" Electra told the Review Journal. \"A lot of people don\'t even know this.\"\n\nShe was in her early 20s when her boyfriend stole all of her savings and left her stranded. \"I remember sitting on a park bench in the valley,\" she says. \"I was crying because I was stranded. It was over 100 degrees outside.\" (credit:Getty)
ジャイモン・フンス―(16 of18)
In the early 1980s, when he was in his teens, the African-born future model and actor was a homeless youth in Paris. \"I lived on the streets for some time -- fighting for survival, searching out nothing more than my daily necessities for a meager existence,\" Hounsou told a U.S. Senate panel in 2008, according to People. (credit:Getty)
フィル・マグロー博士(17 of18)
\"I was homeless living in a car with my dad,\" McGraw reportedly told the Globe in 2009. \"We eventually got a room at the downtown YMCA for five bucks a week.\" (credit:Getty)
ドリュー・ケアリー(18 of18)
Carey lived out of his car for 18 months while trying to earn a spot on \"The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson.\" (credit:Getty Images)
【※】スライドショーが表示されない場合は→こちら。