BRAVE souls who took on the Doorway Sleepout challenge over the weekend have raised an estimated £10,000 for the charity.

In total, 34 volunteers slept in the wind and rain on Saturday night in St Andrew’s churchyard in Chippenham with most only having cardboard and bits of plastic to keep them dry.

The sixth annual sleepout in temperatures just above freezing gave people the chance to raise much needed funds for the Doorway drop-in centre in Chippenham.

Roland Scott, chairman of Friends of Doorway, said: “It was a very good night, it all went very smoothly.

“It was quite wet, some really entered into the spirit of it and had not done anything about sleeping arrangements until the last minute.

“Most people had brought stuff themselves, pieces of cardboard and plastic but some didn’t quite get it right and got quite wet to find out what it was really like on the streets.”

Raising around £10,000 will be a huge boost for Doorway, an open access drop-in centre for those who are homeless, sofa surfing or who have complex issues that might affect their ability to get housing.

The money should account for almost 15 per cent of their yearly expenditure.

Registration began at 7pm on Saturday, despite many arriving earlier to set up camp, before the church service in St Andrew’s began at 8pm.

Local choir Lingmara performed for the volunteers preparing to spend the night without proper shelter or bedding before Antiques Roadshow expert Marc Allum read some bedtime stories.

The following morning each participant was given bacon sandwiches by Doorway volunteers before the clean-up could begin and the churchyard was empty by 7.15am.

“We had a real mix of ages,” Mr Scott added. “We had a mother and her son, we had one young man who has done it on the last four occasions. I was very pleased it all went well."

To donate to Doorway’s Sleepout page visit: www.tinyurl.com/jzcf3b7