“I have lost seven stone” – Salford mum skips meals to feed her children

A mum-of-five says she’s lost seven stone in weight because she can’t afford to feed herself as well as her kids.

Vicky Ashton, 45, a life-long resident of Walkden, says the cost-of-living crisis has meant she is surviving on coffee instead of eating meals with her family.

Weighing almost 15 stone at the beginning of the year, she is now nine stone.

Vicky said: “I have lost 7 stone. I would rather put the heating and electric on to feed my kids, so they get it all. I have been living off coffee.

“I am very worried about my gas and electric. I am on benefits, and I have certain illnesses myself. I want to go out and work but sometimes I physically can’t so I go and do what I can.”

Vicky has had to turn to charities and organisations to get by, particularly Salford Step into Action – a community group set up to provide food, homes supplies and clothing for those who are in need in the city – who helped her during the start of the pandemic when her washer-dryer and freezer broke.

She has nothing but praise for how the charity has helped her: “Salford Step into Action have been absolutely fantastic and a big help to me and my family. They are always here to support me. I phone them up and they are straight there at my door with food parcels.”

“If it wasn’t for the help that they have been giving me, I wouldn’t know what to do. I would be struggling, really.”

Vicky was speaking as she celebrated her birthday in the charity shop with her mum, Sylvia Ashton, who was helping her buy new clothes to now fit her after her weight loss.

Sylvia said: “I try to help as much as I can, but I also have a son and they are finding it hard too, and they have just had a new baby.”

Sylvia has osteoporosis and receives Personal Independence Payment, which supports people with long-term illnesses or disabilities. She said: “I have £300 a month to live off. But it’s not enough. I can’t walk very far; I need a car if I go anywhere. We rely on the charity shops.”

Vicky is a single mum with dyslexia and four of her children, aged from 14 to 20, live with her. She believes people in situations like hers need more help.

She said: “Doing paperwork is very, very hard for me to do, so I have always got to rely on other people, and I haven’t had the support there.”

Salford Step Into Action is currently selling coats for £1 and giving away free hats, gloves, scarves and tights to keep the community warm.

However, due to the 80% increase in domestic gas and electricity bills and rising inflation costs, many across Salford are finding it hard to keep up with energy prices.

Gemma Fish, one of the founders of Salford Step into Action, expressed her worry: “Our biggest concern is the families that are being affected even now with the electricity prices, people are just running out of electricity every single day.

“They have budgeted for all these years and there is no extra money left anyway, so now with this price hike in the evenings they are choosing to turn off electric and they are sitting in the dark once the kids are in bed.

“They are the choices that parents are having to make to keep their electricity costs down at the moment.”

Step Into Action began as a Facebook group when Coronavirus first hit, helping people with prescription and shopping collections. After requests, they began to provide food parcels and opened a shop in Linnyshaw Mill due to the volume of donations.

Gemma said: “Anybody is welcome there isn’t any criteria. You don’t have to be in receipt of certain benefits, it can be anybody.

“We have got families who both work and it’s just that at the end of the month there might not be money left for whatever they might need.”

The community are always accepting of volunteers and are particularly appealing for pyjamas and blankets as the temperature drops.

Gemma shares how she has helped others in the community: “We had one gentleman who had been couch surfing for 18 months. He eventually got a flat. But there was nothing in the flat.

“We got him a cooker, a settee, everything that made him proud to go home. There is no point giving somebody a roof over their head but then there is nothing in it because it won’t feel like a home. So we can help from the big furniture to a picture on the wall or a vase on the side, anything at all.”

The organisation works alongside Little Hulton Big Local and provides a grocery shop every Wednesday, where people can buy 12 items for £2.50. They are hoping to offer this as an evening shop too in the future to enable those who work in the day to collect any food they need.

Gemma’s advice to people who think they might need to use their services is simple. She says: “Don’t feel ashamed, don’t feel embarrassed, just come and ask us because most of us have been in some sort of situation where we have needed to ask for help so we know how that feels.”

You can contact Salford Step into Action via their Facebook page, their free phone number 0800 009 6605 or email through the address help@salfordsia.co.uk. Or, pop into the shop open on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 10am until 4pm at Linnyshaw Mill, 290 Manchester Rd, Walkden, Worsley, Manchester M28 3TR.