Siblings sleeping out for homeless

Twins Lucy and Andrew Rabjohn, 12, and their brother Matthew Rabjohn, 10, joined 375 other brave volunteers to sleep in the cold outside St Albans Abbey.

They were hoping to highlight the plight of homeless people and raise funds for Luton-based youth homelessness charity, LAMP, which their mother Karen Rabjohn works for.

Karen said: “It was great, it rained the whole night but the boxes held up. We had covered them in good plastic so they were nice and dry and surprisingly warm but I wouldn’t say comfortable. The children slept most of the night, when they finanlly went to sleep after all the excitement.”

Of the 378 people who registered to take part in the event, 54 per cent were under the age of 18.

The children raised £1,000 from sponsorship.

If all the pledges go through, LAMP’s 29 volunteers will have raised a total of £3,500 for the charity.

The family, who live in Dunstable, were well prepared for the night with survival bags, sleeping bags and cardboard boxes to keep them warm, and made the most of the hot sausage rolls and hot drinks provided by organisers.

This is the third sleep-out Karen has taken part in, but the first one that her children joined her at.

Matthew said: “My mum works for a really good charity, which helps people whose mums and dads can’t look after them any more. I want to raise money to help LAMP help more young people.”

With funding being cut even further this year and the charity under pressure to house more young homeless people, every penny counts. To sponsor the children go to http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/Rabjohn.