The local lads behind a newly-founded initiative to “make sure the homeless of Manchester don’t go hungry” have launched a fundraiser to help with their mission of becoming a registered charity.
Cold Hands Warm Heart – the brainchild of co-founders Jamie Lilley, 32, and Daniel Goodier, 30 – was set up as the harsh winter temperatures plummeted across the region around two months ago to make sure that no rough sleepers in Manchester are going hungry or without the basic essentials needed to make it through, and with the aim of offering a personal touch and meeting needs that other organisations in the area do not currently offer.
The pair started the organisation after hearing the tragic story of a 25-year-old man who sadly died earlier this year while sleeping rough in the doorway of an M&S in Manchester city centre.
“[Daniel] called me and said we need to do something to help.” Jamie told The Manc.
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They decided to start with a simple, but impactful gesture, and so the very next night, Jamie, Daniel and their friend, Michael Donoghue, all chipped in £30 and went to a local Middleton takeaway to buy some pizzas to hand out to the homeless across the city centre.
Jamie continued: “We ended up with 23 boxes of pizzas to go and hand out, and we split these in half and they went within 15 minutes of us being there”.
“There must have been around fifty to sixty people sleeping rough [on Market Street]”.
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After identifying that there was more the rough sleepers were in need of, the lads spoke to them and asked what exactly they required, with Jamie adding: “They asked us for pot noodles, coffee, boxers, sanitary towels, gloves, scarfs, sleeping bags, hand-warmers and trainers, and we just knew we couldn’t just walk away, so Daniel and I went back again two days later after collecting donations of [those items].
“Once again though, these items lasted no more that 15 minutes, so we vowed to do more”.
Jamie Lilley
This is when the pair decided to call on the brilliant people of Greater Manchester for support.
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Jamie continued: “We made a page on Facebook, and we now have almost 1,500 people following us within a month [and we are] getting a reach of over 40,000 within the last 28 days too.
“We now have a team of 18 volunteers”.
And from original Middleton-based takeaway Ian Donatello’s – which has donated 15 pizzas each the lads go out and has even agreed to pay for a storage unit to store all the products bought – to a number of local small businesses and even “some big investors such as McVities, Howden’s and Chubb”, Jamie and Daniel have been blown away by the “amazing support” from the local community so far.
But there’s a significant hurdle they need to get over to be able to expand further.
Jamie said: “Nearly every company I’ve spoken to wants to help… but once I get five minutes into the call, they ask for my charity number, which at the moment we do not have, and that’s why we’re trying to raise the funds to become a charity”.
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To become a registered charity, the pair need to show that they can earn £5,000 in a year period to prove that they are a fundraising organisation, and so, they have since set up a JustGiving page in an attempt to hit that target.
Over 100 people have already donated to the fundraiser to clock up £2,400 and counting.
“I feel like we’ve got a treasure chest full of gold but no key to open it [and] now the only way we can open that treasure chest would be to get that charity number and once we do, we will then be able to use the funding to help bring so much more”.
Jamie Lilley
Jamie Lilley
Word of the vital work being carried out by Cold Hands Warm Heart has spread far beyond Manchester too, and it’s given Jamie and Daniel a clear vision for the future of the initiative.
“I feel the main goal that we are working towards is just to try and feed as many as we can,” Jamie added.
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“We’ve already had some interest from people in Dublin and in London who are wanting to do the same and use our organisation name, so not only would Cold Hands Warm Heart be feeding the homeless of Manchester, we would also be feeding the homeless of Dublin and London.
“Eventually, will be looking at getting more teams in place to cover the likes of Liverpool, Birmingham Nottingham and all over the UK”.
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If you would like to support Cold Hands Warm Heart for the future, and join in Jamie and Daniel’s fight to becoming a registered charity, all donations can be made via the JustGiving page here.
Every penny counts.
Trending
Video of Chelsea fan claiming ‘Haaland will not live up to the expectation’ comes back to bite him
Danny Jones
A video of a Chelsea supporter expressing his doubts over whether Manchester City striker Erling Haaland will “live up to the expectation” is doing the rounds again and it’s absolutely priceless.
Blues fan and YouTuber Rory Jennings appeared on Sky Sport’s Saturday Social show back in August, just a couple of months after City signed the frightening forward from German side Borussia Dortmund.
Though it went viral at the time, with most fans finding his assumption that Haaland stood no chance of winning the golden boot laughable, it’s enjoying an even more hilarious half-life now the Norwegian has put up the kind of numbers he has.
Jennings said at the time that he was “so bored” of the discussion and excitement, insisting that the 22-year-old striker “isn’t the player everyone thinks he is” and to suggest he could win the personal accolade in his debut season was “outrageous”.
An often divisive commentator and content creator who regularly appears on ‘True Geordie’s watchalong show, The Kick Off (where he has also had numerous viral moments), he even went on to say that the mere notion was “disrespectful” to players like Harry Kane and Mo Salah.
Rubbishing the possibility as a “ridiculous achievement”, he simply declared that Haaland “isn’t going to do it”. Well, this is awkward…
Not only is City’s new number nine already the top scorer in the Premier League with 14 but he also has double the amount of the second highest-scorer in Harry Kane after just eight games. Ridiculous indeed, Rory.
Moreover, despite Jennings claiming that he is “wasteful” in front of goal at times and lacks the “build-up play” to play in Pep Guardiola’s side, Haaland has the most efficient strike rate of any player in Europe right now, averaging 1.89 goals per 90 minutes in the league alone.
Oh, and he’s also chipped in with three assists on top of that.
It’s safe to say that Rory received a fair bit of grief after his bold claim, to the point that even he had to hold his hands up and record an ‘apology’ video.
We can only applaud journalist and co-host Ade Oladipo for being less smug than we would have been in this situation.
To make things even more hilarious, Haaland had scored six when he made this video around two months ago. He is now one goal away from the YouTuber’s initial prediction of 15 in the league and has already netted 17 in all competitions. Yikes.
City are currently second in the league with a whopping goal difference of +20 — nearly three-quarters of you can basically credit to just Haaland.
Don’t think you’ll find anyone tipping Kane, Salah or Son for the golden boot now, do you?
Phil Foden’s bond with elderly City fan with dementia only gets more wholesome
Danny Jones
Among the City fans flying high after the Manchester derby, 84-year-old Barry Carr was undoubtedly one those most bowled over on the day, as he was once again invited to Phil Foden‘s box to watch the game.
Having gone viral earlier this year after attending the Sky Blue’s final game of last season – where he happened to meet Foden pitch-side – the elderly City fan who suffers from dementia was invited along to watch the 6-0 thrashing of Nottingham Forest.
Better still, he and his grandson Charlie Gibson got to watch the game from the comfort of the 22-year-old’s private box.
Since then, the pair’s bond has only grown stronger and more wholesome, as the Stockport local decided to invite him and his Charlie back to watch City put six past another team: United.
As you can see, Barry was invited back to watch the derby and treated to a 6-3 blockbuster, where he got to spend more time with Foden as well as meet ex-player turned pundit, Micah Richards.
One of our favourite bits is him referring to Erling Haaland as “the big one”. You’re not wrong there, Barry!
The lifelong fan City fan was over the moon with the result and even more excited when he realised his favourite Foden had netted a hattrick against against their historic rivals.
Following the game, the two shared a lovely embrace and spoke about the game, with Foden describing his game as a “dream come true”. We dare say Barry felt the same.
Barry’s face when he realised Phil scored the openerA hug and a kiss after full-time
We’re not crying, you are…
While he struggles with his memory, most of his years spent watching City vs United would have been quite different, as the blue half of Manchester were long-considered ‘the noisy neighbours’. Safe to say things have changed significantly over the past decade.
As for him and Foden, the pair seem to have struck up a really strong connection — you only need to see his face when Phil turns up to say hello after the game.
Charlie has been chronicling various memories with his grandad over on his TikTok and each one seems to be more heartwarming than the last.
We’ll happily stay on this corner of the internet for the foreseeable.
Emily Sergeant -
8th March 2021 
