On the 24th February DUCK held its famous biennial Cathedral Sleepout where over 300 students stayed the night in Durham’s very own UNESCO world heritage site. Money was raised in support of two incredibly important local charities; MovingOn Durham, which works to target the problem of youth homelessness, and Foodcycle Durham, which gathers unwanted food from local businesses to help Durham residents who really need it. We all gathered in the Cathedral in the midst of Storm Doris to experience a night that gave us the smallest insight into the struggles of living on the streets.
DUCK hosts so many enticing events, but when scrolling through my Facebook one night this was one that particularly stood out to me. I chose to get involved because the charities that were going to benefit from the fundraising were ones that offer support for issues that I feel really passionate about. As well as this, sleeping in the cathedral seemed like a once in a life time experience. I would get to spend the night in a place with huge amounts of history. Over the years, hundreds of people have sought refuge within the Cathedral and had slept in the exact same spot that I would. This is not to forget that, of course, it is the site of many of the scenes in the first Harry Potter film, so my inner Potter-nerd was dying for me to take part. The event seemed like nothing I’d ever get the chance to do again and I didn’t want to pass up on an opportunity to help MovingOn or Foodcycle.
Everybody arrived at the Cathedral at around 8pm well equipped with sleeping bags, pillows, onesies and blankets. The entertainment started shortly with a whole variety of Durham-based acts distracting us from all the ghosts that were sure to be floating around. Pret, Sainsbury’s and Ciao Ciao provided a huge amount of sandwiches, crisps and biscuits to keep us all going throughout the night. The amount on show really made me realise how much food goes to waste when it could be used to feed so many hungry people. When the lights were turned off at about 1am the Cathedral was surprisingly quite warm but the uneven stone floor was definitely not conducive to a good night’s sleep. After being woken up at 6am I walked home in my pyjamas and got straight back into bed.
Overall the night was a huge success. Over £7,000 was raised for the two charities. Not only did I have a lot of fun taking part but my very unauthentic experience of sleeping rough left me feeling more inspired to get involved with DUCK and the local charities it supports. I would definitely urge anyone to take part in this event when it rolls around again in 2019!