Prince William has been credited by a Cambridge Big Issue vendor with helping him overcome drug addiction.
Eamonn Kelly, who sells the magazine on Cambridge's Trinity Street, met the the future King during a royal visit in June 2022.
William and Princess Kate crossed paths with Kelly, originally from Belfast, during their tour of modular homes constructed for homeless individuals by Jimmy's, a Cambridgeshire charity supporting rough sleepers.
The innovative housing units had opened two years prior as among the first of their type in Britain.
Prince William has been lauded for helping a man beat drug addiction
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Kelly's emotional meeting with the future King came at a particular low point, as his mother had passed away just months earlier.
"I'd just lost my mum that February, but when I met William it pulled me out of wallowing and got me motivated," Kelly said.
He credited the royal encounter as a turning point in his recovery.
"I realised I had to get these drugs out of my system. Since then, I've not touched anything," the vendor revealed.
Eamonn Kelly, a Big Issue seller, met the William and Princess Kate in 2022 as they toured a Cambridge housing project
PA
Kelly had battled addiction for a decade before the royal visit transformed his outlook.
He has maintained his sobriety since 2022 and continues selling the Big Issue daily in central Cambridge.
Speaking at the time, Kelly praised how both William and Kate for their openness during the visit.
“They’re down to earth people, they’re very genuine, they’re interested in you as a person, not your past or your future,” he said.
Kelly praised said William 'pulled me out of wallowing and got me motivated'
PA
The following year, Kelly was one of 8,000 people invited to a Buckingham Palace garden party in honour of King Charles’s coronation.
While there, he was reunited with the Prince of Wales during the palace soiree.
“It was brilliant, William pushed his way through the crowds to come and shake my hand,” he told the Big Issue after the meeting.
William's 2022 Cambridge visit preceded his ambitious Homewards programme, launched in June 2023 as a five-year plan to eliminate homelessness across six UK pilot locations.
The initiative encompasses over 100 projects and has entered what the Prince recently termed "delivery mode".
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Prince William has long been a passionate supporter of homeless issues and launched his Homewards initiative in 2023
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In correspondence to local coalition groups, William acknowledged homelessness as a "complex and unpredictable" challenge whilst expressing gratitude to those supporting his mission to "demonstrate that it is possible to make homelessness rare, brief and unrepeated".
The Prince noted progress had begun to "shift the dial" on this "mammoth challenge", stating: "There are now people who are no longer experiencing homelessness thanks to your tremendous efforts."
Homewards anticipates delivering approximately 300 homes through innovative housing projects, combining vacant properties, private rentals and new construction.
William recently marked the second anniversary of Homeward where he celebrated the success of the initiative in an emotional address.
"I know this is a mammoth challenge and change won't come overnight, but over the past year we've started to shift the dial and there are now people who are no longer experiencing homelessness thanks to your tremendous efforts," the future King said.
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