Big Sleepout at St Giles' church in Cambridge raises £10,000

Dozens of people spent a night sleeping outside St Giles' Church, Cambridge, to raise funds and awareness for both homeless people in Cambridge and refugees in Calais.

A Tale of Two Cities: The Big Cambridge-Calais Sleepout was held in support of Cambridge Convoy Refugee Action Group and Wintercomfort.

Tony King, one of the organisers, said: “It was inspiring being there with all those people who were doing something quite unpleasant. I didn’t actually get much sleep.

“I’m quite an outdoors person, but there were a couple of people there who were spending their first night outside, and some people did it without a tent. It was a mild evening but in the night the wind chill picked up and it became very unpleasant.

“We hope it will raise awareness of our shared humanity.”

The aim was to raise £5,000, but on Monday the sleepers had raised more than £10,000 for the two charities.