The nurse helping people with 'no gas, no carpets, no food'

Kirsty Nelson says she fell in love with the work and the people she helps

When Kirsty Nelson was dragged along to help out at a soup van a decade ago she never planned on becoming a lifeline to people needing support.

"I just wasn't interested," she says but her friend would not stop asking so she went along to keep her quiet.

"I absolutely fell in love with the work and the people," she says.

Now Kirsty works full-time as a "parish nurse" for a church charity in the heart of Dundee's city centre, offering frontline support to people living through poverty, addictions and trauma.

"I don't think people have a clue actually sometimes what other folk are living in," she says.

People are living with no gas or electricity and having to rely on food banks to eat, Kirsty says. Some people have no carpets and are sleeping on a mattress on the floor with just a couple of blankets.

"They are really just scraping by," she says.

Kirsty, who is 33, works for The Steeple Church, whose services sit alongside the bustling Overgate centre filled with busy Christmas shoppers and twinkling lights.

On a wet, cold winter's day, Kirsty talks to a young woman in the doorway of the church hall.

The woman is unable to top-up her gas meter. Her house is freezing and she is hungry and cold.

"Please excuse me for being blunt but have you relapsed?" Kirsty asks her.

The woman says she has locked herself at home for a few weeks while she has been struggling.

She is trying to deal with a bereavement and she has gone back to using crack cocaine.

Kirsty ushers her in and offers a seat. She spends time talking through her problems, gets her a food bank referral and arranges to meet her every day until she is back on her feet.

The Covid pandemic has hit the economy in Dundee, as it has everywhere, and the cost of living is rising rapidly.

The consequences on people's lives are apparent at The Steeple where those who come for food and help are in real, urgent need.

Kirsty tries to support her "guys and girls" with any problems they might bring to her - from loneliness and mental health crises to the choice between heating their home or eating. Sometimes people can't afford to do either.

Kirsty calls it "wraparound care".

'I've not really got a life'

George has been homeless in the past

A man called George has come to The Steeple for turkey stew, what he says is his first hot meal in weeks.

George has been homeless in the past and has been on and off drugs for years.

He spends his day talking to people in the street or taking the bus around Dundee to keep warm but at night he can't sleep and struggles. He is lonely and has insomnia.

"At night I don't have anybody to talk to so what I do is walk about," George says.

"I always have a book with me. That's what I do most of my time. I do a lot of reading.

"I lead a life but deep down it's like I've not really got a life.

"That's what it feels like but that's my fault I suppose. That's not anybody else's fault."

George has been on a waiting list for dentures for two years.

He had to get the last of his teeth removed before the pandemic started but then everything closed during the first lockdown and he could not get an appointment with a dentist.

While George waits, he doesn't like being seen without his teeth because his confidence is low.

It's for this reason, he says, he doesn't come for food at The Steeple very often because he is scared people are looking at him.

"If I could get my mouth sorted, it would build my confidence and I would be able to start talking to more people," he says.

"I would smile as I was talking. It's just a waiting game really."

But among the struggles, there is hope and signs of life on the other side.

Kirsty and Marc married three years ago

Kirsty served a man called Marc at the Eagles Wings soup van when she first volunteered in 2012.

He was homeless then and struggling with an addiction to heroin.

At Christmas one year, she spent an hour consoling Marc near the van as he cried and opened up about the pain he was feeling.

Marc Nelson, 41, is now Kirsty's husband of three years. They married in October 2018 and he now works at Ninewells hospital helping vulnerable young people.

He is one of the hundreds of people Kirsty has helped, and will continue to help, in Dundee this winter.