'I lost my three-year-old daughter and my wife. I lost everything'

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Colin finds it difficult to speak about what happened to his family. It still feels as raw and present for him as twenty years ago. “I saw my three-year-old daughter die in front of me,” he tells the M.E.N. “My wife committed suicide six days after that." The tragedy has haunted him ever since.

He's struggled with his mental health, faced homelessness and though he now thankfully has his own flat, regularly grapples with feelings of deep loneliness. READ NEXT: More than 23,000 people sought refuge at warm banks in Oldham last year In the last few difficult years, it's one place in particular that has helped Colin get through it all.

That Tuesday Thing is a weekly event run by non-profit organisation the Ancora Project. The makeshift cafe, hosted from a non-descript little room on Rhodes Street, Oldham, every Tuesday, offers a free meal and hot drink to those facing financial or personal hardship, in temporary accommodation or sleeping rough.

Sitting at a table sipping his tea, Colin said: “It’s a real Godsend. I don’t know where I’d be without places like this. The volunteers here have pulled me back time and time again from doing something silly.” He started coming a year and a half ago, when he was served a 'no-fault eviction' (called a Section 21 eviction notice) by his landlord at the the supported accommodation block for vulnerable adults where he had been living for three years.