'If I end up homeless, I end up homeless - but I'll do everything I can to keep the kitchen from closing'

TRACY Dickinson Wheeldon was only 14 when she found herself living on the streets of Nottingham.

- By RUCSANDRA MOLDOVEANU

Being extremely vulnerable, she found herself at the centre of many acts of violence, leaving her scared and lonely.

Despite the horrific challenges she had to overcome in those years, Tracy fought to turn her life around and went on to study at Nottingham Trent University, achieving a master's degree and becoming a teacher for children with disabilities.

In October 2016, following the breakdown of an 18-year relationship, she set up Tracy's Street Kitchen to help Nottingham’s homeless with hot food and other everyday essentials such as toiletries, having not forgotten the trauma she went through in her teenage years.

The service is funded by Tracy herself, without any external third party cash grants apart from a fortnightly Tesco donation, and public donations.

The service quickly became popular among the city’s rough sleepers, as well as low-income families and individuals, with the kitchen helping hundreds of people every week.

“They're my family. I want to do so much for them,” Tracy says.

But despite helping the city’s homeless out of her own pocket, Tracy - who says she has no close family to turn to - now faces losing her Mansfield home of 18 years.

Tracy bought the three-bedroom terraced property in 1999 with her partner at the time.