MEN NewsA postgraduate student from Manchester University slept in a tent for 10 months when he realised he could not afford the rent for his university digs.
Evan Eames, a 24-year-old astrophysics student from Canada, took to websites Reddit and Gumtree to explain his accommodation woes. As an international student he was required to pay £20k for his fees, and found himself short of cash for his rent.
It wasn’t long before he received an offer from good Samaritan, Charley Mantack, 34, who spotted an opportunity. In exchange for maths and physics tutoring for her exams, she allowed him to camp in her Stockport garden for 10 months.
He was there the whole time come wind, rain or snow. And there can be a lot of that in Manchester…
MEN NewsApparently camping in the snow wasn’t that bad, but the rain “made it difficult”. Regardless of that, he told the MEN news that the experience was overall “enjoyable”.
There was some days I would wake up, there was birds around and reeds blowing in the wind, or you could hear the pitter-pattering on top of the tent some days of the rain, it was really enjoyable.
There were two days I thought it was not a good day. In February there was a really bad blizzard, there was a lot of wind. When I got back it was quite late and the wind had picked up the tent and I had to re-pitch it.
And as if living in a tent for a whole academic year wasn’t enough to cement legendary status Eames also met his girlfriend on the course. She sometimes joined him in the tent for the night; I bet the whole ‘your place or mine?’ conversation got a bit awkward.
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Chris is a trending and viral news editor at UNILAD.