Francois Pieron

coming up in this podcast.

The homeless man who turned his life around after learning to play the piano.

At first glance, with the children enjoying their morning break, it looks just like any other school.

And how is it for you now?

Hi, I'm Francois, I'm 30 years old.

I was on the streets for five years.

When I came to England I was 17 and I started to play piano on the Simpankras piano which quickly became my second home.

Coming to Simpankras repeatedly playing piano

I've been able to get out of the homelessness cycle by playing and playing and playing from day to night.

I was also getting support on the side by a couple of organisations, but ultimately the piano was the one that's been supporting me through all of that.

I was playing piano every day.

The best part of it is that I was finally feeling seen, finally feeling like people were actually watching me and appreciating who I was.

I wasn't an outcast anymore.

I was somebody that could actually give

give joy, give love.

There's countless stories of people coming to me telling me how much they enjoyed my thing and just being on the street and receiving this level of love was massive.

I would say that letting yourself die is one of the massive things while being homeless.

You just don't care anymore.

No one cares about me.

So, yeah.