A FLINTSHIRE resident has thanked the 'Godsend' charity in Wrexham which has helped him find a permanent venue to help look after homeless people in the area.

Matt Pyne, who is from Flint, is a HGV driver by day. However, both he and partner Sian Bradley have also voluntarily been feeding and taking care of the homeless for a number of years.

The pair had started out by setting up on Queen's Square in Wrexham, before moving on to a church car park.

But, after complications arose with both of those locations, they sought a new more permanent residence to help them complete their mission of helping those less fortunate than themselves.

In December 2021, after Matt had put an appeal out to help find a permanent venue on Facebook, Peter Humphreys of the Yellow and Blue (YAB) charity stepped in to help out.

As a result, the YAB hub in the heart of Wrexham's town centre has now become the weekly venue for Matt and his team, as well as YAB volunteers, to cater for the homeless people in the community.

Matt said: "Before Yellow and Blue came along, I felt like I was hitting a brick wall. But, I don't ever give up on things, especially when I know that what I'm doing is the right thing.

"Yellow and Blue have been an absolute Godsend for us as they've allowed us to set up in a place where we can really get to make connections with people and get to help them and understand them much better than we did in previous locations.

"I can't thank Peter and the volunteers at YAB enough for what they have done. Even if I get there late one night, because of work, I don't have to worry as I know they will have set everything up ready to help out."

Matt now runs his 'Outreach' programme from the hub every Wednesday at 7pm, offering hot meals, clothing and so much more.

On Wednesday, January 12, a team of hairdressers from the Evolve Salon in Mold came along to the Hub to offer free haircuts.

The Leader:

PIC: YAB volunteers with Doughnutology doughnuts.

On that particular day, around 30 hot meals and 15 haircuts were given out at YAB, with the Doughnutology team also donating some of their delicious doughnuts for people to enjoy.

Matt said: "We offer around 30 hot meals every week and you can guarantee that everyone of them has been taken and enjoyed by the end. We get the hairdressers in once a month and over the next few weeks we've also got beauticians coming in to do nails and eyebrows for the ladies.

"You just can't put a price on seeing the smiles things like that generate. It's all about creating pathways for people and Yellow and Blue has allowed us to do that. It's been an absolute pleasure working with them so far."