I OFTEN stop to chat with Tony, one of the Big Issue sellers, along with his beautiful Dalmatian dog, Roxy.

They live in a tent and have been doing so with their friend, Jack, for almost two years.

They find the local night shelter too frightening to take advantage of because of the many ‘hardened’ people suffering from alcoholism, drug addiction and mental health issues who quite rightly frequent the shelter in their need (Tony and Jack don’t judge these people they are just scared of them).

Today, Tony was excited, smiling and in spite of his homelessness said he was feeling ‘over the moon’.

The reason? The manager of the Sainsbury’s in St Michael Street had brought him a hot cup of coffee!

Just a simple act of kindness had made him feel like a human being again – such a contrast to the Tesco in Cowley Road where some seem to assume that all homeless people are thieves and won’t even let the Big Issue sellers stand in their shop porch to shelter from the rain and snow.

It’s pitiful to see them standing on the pavement in all weathers, when they could be shelteredi in the large porch.

It’s amazing how some people can be so humane and others so inhumane.

PAMELA WEBBER, Bullingdon Road, Oxford