An estate agency director has revealed an extraordinary story after taking the unusual decision to gave up all the home comforts and becomes homeless in London for a month.

Robert Wilson, known as ‘Wilf’, who is a partner in Dorset-based Wilson Tominey Group, took to the streets in central London on a cold winter night in January.

Without food or shelter

He stuck with it for 31 days, experiencing the full-on challenge of surviving from day-to-day without food or shelter.

The 51-year-old father of two, who is also a grandfather, did it to raise awareness of homelessness and to collect donations for a charity, The Lantern Trust, which is like Wilson Tominey, operating in Weymouth.

“I couldn’t go through any more of my life without it being purposeful,” he explains.

“Seeing people sit there, being ignored—I don’t like loneliness for people,” SomersetLive reports.

Homeless

The first night was particularly scary, he says. “Dark, cold, and noisy. I was scared,” he admits.

He started his journey under a bush in Hyde Park and on the first morning he managed to get a free apple and a carrot from a shop.

At one unnerving point he and another rough sleeper were surrounded in Regent’s Park, by a group of eight men speaking in a foreign language.

But there was a positive side too. “It is arguably a closer community than the one we live in,” he says. “In a way, it can be admired.”

“A smile feeds you. Three smiles in a row can carry you.”

“A smile feeds you,” he explains. “Three smiles in a row can carry you.”

Wilson kept himself busy by volunteering at community gardens, visiting libraries, and selling The Big Issue. At the end he was exhausted, and had mixed feelings: “Overwhelming — for both guilt and relief. I felt like a con artist, like I’d let people down. I left the cause.”

He has exceeded his fundraising target of £3,000, raising more than £4,400. Readers can donate here

Pictures: SomersetLive

Read more about homeless fund raising initiatives.