Sitting outside a betting shop in Oldham town centre, David Storer pats the concrete ledge beside him. “Take a seat in my home,” he says. “Welcome.” It’s a spot the dad-of-one frequents most these days.
With just £2 to his name, he will spend the next few hours begging for cash while drinking super-strength lager. A tenner means he gets a warm hostel bed for the night.
The alternative, he says, is a mouldy car in an abandoned garage which once left him hospitalised with a chest infection. Join our WhatsApp Top Stories and Breaking News group by clicking this link “It’s making me depressed,” the 42-year-old says as he takes a swig from his can. “I self-harm.
I do it about three or four times a week because of it. “I drink and I know I’m an alcoholic, but if I got given a job tomorrow, I’d quit.
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