We lived on food parcels ..I was that child once

Prem star Callum Wilson on support for foodbanks after own tough start in life

- SIMON BIRD

Callum Wilson grabs a tin from the Gateshead Foodbank crates and has a flashback. "That's mine!" he says. "I'd hunt out the tinned fruit with the cherries and fruit salads in our food parcel. My favourite." The England and Newcastle forward admits he used to be embarrassed to tell team-mates his mum and five brothers and sisters struggled so much they needed donations to make ends meet.

That was 20 years ago and now he's a World Cup striker, helping to pack food boxes for some of the 10,000 needy in Gateshead. "I have realised there's no shame, that it is part of my journey," says Callum.

"A foodbank in Coventry was part of my struggle. Players say to me, 'Really, that was you?" Now 31, Callum is at the peak of his career, netting 11 goals so far this season for Newcastle as they bid for the riches of the Champions League next season. But part of him will always be that kid in Coventry - "a diamond in the rough", he says - who found a way out.

Callum is speaking out as The Trussell Trust announces today nearly three million emergency parcels were given out nationwide in the year to April - up 37% as the cost of living crisis bites. Callum recalls: "One day some people turned up and gave us food parcels.

We didn't ask but someone had spotted we were in need.