Alabaré explores new Gib initiative as Mike Nicholls tops £10,000 Big Sleep fundraiser

The CEO of a UK veterans’ charity Alabaré, Andrew Lord, is in Gibraltar this week to explore the possibility of a new heritage restoration project that would once again link the Rock’s military past with the wellbeing of former service personnel.

The charity operates homes across the South West of England and Wales, providing veterans with up to two years of supported accommodation before they move on to permanent housing.

Speaking to the Chronicle he said he was combining a holiday in Gibraltar with research into potential sites that could host a future volunteer programme for veterans.

Between 2022 and 2024, teams of homeless people from the UK, many of them veterans, worked on Lord Airey’s Battery and O’Hara’s Battery, helping to restore the sites.

“The men and women who took part had a brilliant time,” Mr Lord said.

“It gave them an opportunity to come back to a place that many had served whilst in the military. It gave them an opportunity to work hard, the camaraderie of taking part as a team exercise, and to give something back to a place that many veterans are fond of as well.”

He described the scheme of working to restore an asset as part of “a real exciting emerging theme” in the UK, using heritage as a mechanism to improve wellbeing by helping people feel more connected to the places where they live or visit.

Recently, Alabaré sent a team of veterans to Malta, where they worked on an old British fort.

“Contributing something back to Malta, but also for the participants improving their wellbeing as well,” he said, adding that heritage projects were “good for heritage and good for the individuals taking part.”

Mr Lord said he remains in regular contact with past participants.

“Just a few weeks ago, I was talking to one of the participants who took part in the 2023 project,” he said.

“Out came his mobile phone, and he was showing all the things that he was doing at O’Hara’s Battery three years ago. There’s a strong long-term benefit for the individuals taking part as well.”

Mr Lord has also been in close contact with Peter Jackson, who worked with the charity on the previous visits, and he described Mr Jackson’s work in the World War II tunnels as “absolutely superb”.

Alongside his heritage research, Mr Lord is also visiting Gibraltar to support Mike Nicholls, the director of Chestertons, who is taking part in Alabaré’s Big Sleep event at St Paul’s Cathedral in London on June 26.

The event will see around 100 people sleeping outside, exposed to the elements, in the cathedral gardens to raise funds for the charity.

“Mike has very kindly agreed to take part in our flagship event at St Paul’s Cathedral and Mike has done absolutely brilliantly so far. He’s raised over £10,000,” Mr Lord said.

“Being outside for one night can only give you a very, very small taste of really what it’s like to be homeless, because at the end of the following day you can go back home, have a shower.”

“Importantly, it’s about how we raise the subject of how do we break the cycle for homeless veterans.”

Mr Lord, a veteran of around 15 Big Sleep events out of some 25 organised by the charity, noted that the challenge depended largely on the forecast.

“It’s difficult when it rains,” he said.

“One time, I did a Big Sleep event and the rain came in horizontal.”

These conditions do not faze Mr Nicholls, who noted that he has personal ties to St Paul’s.

“Homelessness resonates with what I do, which is property and property finance,” he said.

“I think the connection with Gibraltar was very important, so I’m not just flying in somewhere to do a random charity in the UK unconnected with Gibraltar. I’ve got Gibraltar in my blood.”
What also convinced him, he said, was the location of the event.

“The clincher was, it’s at St Paul’s Cathedral,” he said.

As a child, he sang in a choir performance there, he had his graduation ceremony from university there and has since returned occasionally to attend services.

“There’s something about the place that I like,” he said.

“Add those ingredients together, and there I am. If there’s a flag bearer for the charity in Gibraltar, we’re also home from home for many military, so it all connected up, and it seemed it was made for me.”

With the event only weeks away, he admitted to feeling both excited and slightly daunted about sleeping out at his age of 59.

“We wake up on Armed Forces Day, which resonates well. I look forward to it in a weird way,” he added.

He launched his fundraising campaign around six weeks ago and has already passed the £10,000 mark through a mixture of small individual donations and larger contributions from clients.

“I intend to have a final push,” he said, noting that Alabaré has introduced a competitive element where the top 15 fundraisers will be invited to a breakfast at the Mansion House.

At present, he is currently second on the fundraising table and hopes for a late surge. He recalled a previous local effort in which Gibraltar topped a coat collection appeal organised by the Chestertons offices in London.

For Mr Nicholls, the message is clear: “There shouldn’t be any homelessness.”

“On top of that, there certainly shouldn’t be any homeless veterans having served the country.”

“What I can do is make a small contribution to their today, and hopefully the state can work out their tomorrow.”

To donate to Mr Nicholls’ Big Sleep and get Gibraltar to the top of the fundraising table, go to https://www.justgiving.com/page/mike-nicholls