I am joining a team to raise both awareness and funds for Crisis who I have volunteered with over the Christmas period many times over the past 30 years. Homelessness is a massive challenge in the UK and it is getting worse. I was shocked to read earlier this week that the number of people dying while homeless reached a record high last year with some tragic stories of how they died. I volunteer because every year I see great people who need support and help to get them into the accommodation and work they seek.

In 1967 Bill Shearman, Iain Macleod - the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Nick Beacock - a curate at St Barnabas Church in East Ham, organised a rally with a mission to end homelessness in London. That event gave birth to the charity that we know today as Crisis.

58 years on - the fight to eradicate homelessness continues. This October, for the second consecutive year, we are following in the footsteps of Bill Shearman, Nick Beacock and Iain Macleod who, as we do today, believed that having a roof over one's head should be a human right not a privilege.