Lady Kitty Spencer has followed in her cousin Prince William's footsteps by spending the night sleeping out in the cold. Kitty, 25, turned the streets of London into her bed on Thursday evening, braving the bitter cold.
Princess Diana's niece wrapped up in a thick winter jacket, jeans and a bobble hat and slept in a sleeping bag on flimsy layers of cardboard. She joined other stars at Centrepoint charity's annual fundraiser, Sleep Out, on Greenwich Peninsula.
Kitty Spencer with Centrepoint's chief executive Seyi Obakin © Andy Barnes/Centrepoint
Kitty is an ambassador for Centrepoint, the youth homelessness charity which provides support for young people in the form of education, employment, mental health services and a warm bed. The pretty blonde posted a photo of her rough sleeping conditions, urging people to donate to the cause.
"This is where I am sleeping tonight at Centrepoint's SleepOut to raise funds and awareness to help end youth homelessness," she wrote on Instagram. "Rough sleeping is on the rise. 26 per cent of UK young people have slept in an unsafe place because they had nowhere else to go. We need your help to raise £500,000 to ensure that vulnerable young people get the support they need to turn their lives around. www.centrepoint.org.uk."
Kitty is an ambassador for the youth homelessness charity © Andy Barnes/Centrepoint
Kitty Spencer claims she envies homeless people
Kitty was joined by other stars including Sadie Frost, Sara Cox and Ashley James, who all bedded down for the night in the covered tent. Over 1,000 people took part in the charity fundraiser.
The stars slept out on Greenwich Peninsula © Andy Barnes/Centrepoint
The 'sleepers' experienced a taste of the stark realities of homelessness – the biting cold, the damp, the noise and the difficulty of carrying on your day with little sleep. However they had some comforts in the form of a DJ set, a poetry reading, short films and food and water.
Kitty became an ambassador for the charity in February; her cousin Prince William is patron of the youth organisation. In 2009, the future King took part in the same challenge and slept out on the streets near Blackfriars Bridge in central London. He said he could not "even begin to imagine what it must be like to sleep rough night after night".
