A hero long before fame

Caring comic's work on the front line of poverty, desperation and hardship

KNOWN for his caring nature, Paul O'Grady stood up for the vulnerable and least fortunate, not only at the height of his fame but also before he became drag icon Lily Savage.

His love of the underdog was epitomised in later life on TV shows such as For the Love of Dogs, but as a social worker for Camden Council in North London, the young dad saw, firsthand, families in need of support.

Here in extracts from his memoirs he recounts some of the sad, terrifying and hilarious encounters he had...

One of my assignments was looking after a girl and her three brothers while their mother went into hospital for a hysterectomy and their father went into prison for IRA activities.

It was in another rundown flat that I found myself playing Mary Poppins for six solid weeks.

Luckily they were smashing kids, their ages ranging from four to 10, who were hardly any trouble at all to look after and seemed to live only for food and football, the girl included. I took them to see Arsenal play, only the second time I'd ever been to a professional match.

My induction into professional football had taken place years earlier when Frank, our next-door neighbour, had taken me to see Tranmere Rovers play and the man standing behind me had done a beery wee down the back of my duffel coat through a rolled-up copy of the Liverpool Echo.

One morning Liam, the youngest boy, wearing only a dirty vest, seized the opportunity of an open front door to escape. When I eventually realised that he was missing I took off looking for him in my bare feet, frantic that he'd wandered on to the busy road.

Finally discovering him outside the station, barefaced and barearsed, I suffered the humiliation of seeing commuters on their way to catch their trains either averting their eyes completely or viewing the pair of us with a mixture of disgust and pity.