A man who spent many months living homeless on Southend’s streets has managed to turn his life around... and he says it’s mainly thanks to the hard work of volunteers at the town’s One Love Soup Kitchen.

When David Grover’s wife died from breast cancer five years ago, his life fell apart, and his reaction, he regrets, was to “hit the bottle hard”.

“I felt like I lost everything we’d built up over 22 years, including our home,” explained the 62 year-old.

“My children had all grown up and moved out, and I found myself homeless in Thurrock.”

Mr Grover was offered accommodation in Clacton, but he didn’t want to move so far away.

“I said I’d prefer to stay in a bike shed,” he said.

Mr Grover was then offered homeless accommodation in Southend, but as this was only for a limited time, his life took a turn for the worse as he was kicked out onto the Southend streets.

“It’s awful being homeless,” he said.

“The worst part is when you want to sleep, because that’s when you’re at your most vulnerable.

“Once when I was sleeping at an old tram stop opposite the casino, I took my trainers off to get into my sleeping bag. When I woke up, they were gone.”

Mr Grover preferred not to sleep in shop doorways.

“I wanted to try to keep out of people’s way,” he said.

While he never encountered physical abuse, there were plenty of verbal attacks.

“People would shout at me ‘why don’t you just get a job’, and ‘get off the streets’, but they were usually under the influence of alcohol and just wanted to have a dig at someone,” he said.

Mr Grover was told about One Love Soup Kitchen by a friend, who told him he could get a hot meal and clean clothing there.

“I went the next evening, and I’ve been going there every week since for the last 10 months,” he said.

“It was something I could look forward to. I could freshen up there, which is so important when you’re homeless.

Mr Glover describes One Love as offering a “Rolls Royce” of a service.

“There’s nowhere else in Southend that offers those kinds of facilities to the homeless,” he said.

And seeing the hard work of the volunteers also lifted his faith in human nature.

“I can’t speak highly enough of them,” he said.

“My life is now getting back on track, I would say in a large part due to the One Love team.”

Mr Grover has recently moved into a room in shared housing on York Road in Southend, and his sister was kind enough to pay the deposit.

“She came to visit and made a list of what I needed for my room – things like a microwave – and she me bought the lot – she’s a lovely girl,” he said.

Now, Mr Grover also pitches in as a volunteer for One Love.

“As a token of my thanks to them, I sweep and mop up the portable cabins,” he said.

Mr Grover spent most of his life before becoming homeless working in warehousing.

“I’m very much looking for that type of work now,” he said.