We had a reminder on Saturday of the importance of not making assumptions. About 11.20 pm we saw quite an elderly gentleman leaning on a fence, so we went over and asked if he was ok. He said he wasn’t, as he’d come down to Plymouth from Exeter for the day and had been trying to find a B & B or hotel but every one he’d tried had said they were full – we suspected that this may have been something to do with his appearance as he was a little scruffy and unshaven. His speech was also very slurred (as he had no teeth) and he walked slowly with somewhat of a limp so that he appeared drunk, but we think he’d maybe had a stroke at some point which would have accounted for that We walked him up to some streets where we knew there were lots of Guest Houses, but the first 6 or 7 we tried had “No vacancies” signs in the windows.

Eventually we came to quite a large hotel and he seemed happy to go in and pay whatever the rate was but to our disappointment he was out again within a minute as they were “full” – obviously we wondered if they were really but it wasn’t going to help to question that in any way.

Finally we found a B & B which had a “Vacancies” sign in the window but when we rang the doorbell and the owner saw our guy, he said “Sorry no vacancies”. I gently pointed out that the sign said there were, to which he replied “Well I’ve only got a family room and it’s £70” – I asked our man if he had £70 which he said he had, so the owner was perhaps a little “snookered” and began to book him in. We waited outside to make sure the card our chap was carrying didn’t get refused or anything and we got quite worried when he came out of the door a minute later but to our relief, it was only to thank us for our help

The whole encounter had been a reminder for us of the danger of making assumptions. Our man had looked drunk or as if he was on drugs. At first sight he might also have looked as if he was penniless and smelly but in fact he was none of these things; just an elderly gentleman in need of help