Sam Fender urges support for Big Issue sellers as high streets empty
The North Shield's singer-songwriter is urging people to help the cause
Last updated 20th Dec 2021
North Shield's singer-songwriter Sam Fender is urging people to buy copies of The Big Issue at a time of crisis for the magazine's vendors as high streets are emptying due to the Covid surge.
The Seventeen Going Under musician, 27, is friends with an ex-vendor from Newcastle, Earl John Charlton, and the pair see each other "nearly every other day" when Fender passes his new workplace - the charity North East Homeless on his way into his studio.
Fender - who has just been nominated for 3 BRIT awards - has described Charlton as "a diamond, a true hero, a man of the people", adding his empathy has helped him through the problems he has experienced with his voice over the last year.
He is now calling on people to support sellers, who are homeless or vulnerably housed people, amid Plan B restrictions and emptier high streets.
Christmas would usually be the busiest time of the year for Big Issue sellers, who are self-employed and buy magazines for ÂŁ2 before selling them on for ÂŁ4 and cannot work from home.
Fender said: "If you walk past anybody selling The Big Issue, please go and buy it, because it really does help people change their lives for the better.
"And it's got loads of good stuff in it."
Lord John Bird, founder of The Big Issue, added: "Once again we find ourselves in the sticky stuff.
"We thank Sam wholeheartedly for his support. Please do as he asks and buy a copy of the magazine from your local vendor and if you can't then please subscribe online and help someone living in poverty to lift themselves up and out."