‘I went from Hollyoaks to helping the homeless'

Soap star Jazmine Franks, 28, tells new how helping rough sleepers get back on their feet has been a life lesson

- ANNA BAILEY

Leaving Hollyoaks in 2018 after eight years was a huge turning point for me. I went from being busy and constantly in demand to everything suddenly stopping.

With auditions few and far between, I decided to throw myself into working full-time at the homeless charity where I’d been volunteering for a couple of years.

Based in Manchester, near my home town of Bury, Barnabus runs a drop-in centre where rough sleepers can get a hot meal, shower and clothing, as well as help with getting into hospital or finding accommodation.

I’m lucky as I come from quite a privileged background where we never really wanted for anything and I’d always felt like I wanted to give something back. I started volunteering with Barnabus in my free time in 2016 as I wasn’t filming every day at Hollyoaks.

I fell in love with the place. Listening to the stories of the people who walked through the door, I realised my problems were minute. There’s a misconception that people become homeless due to issues like drug use, but that usually comes after they’ve been through something traumatic.

It could be the breakdown of a relationship, their parents throwing them out for being gay or just falling on hard times – you can go from being made redundant to not being able to afford the mortgage to having your house repossessed. All of a sudden you’ve gone from having a life and a family to nothing. That’s when people usually turn to drugs.

I became a patron for Barnabus and, as well as raising awareness for the charity, my day-to-day role was to look after all the volunteers and run sessions at the drop-in centre. But when the coronavirus crisis hit, everything changed. Suddenly we had to close our doors and change tack.