CHANGED HER LIFE
MAGAZINE JOB HAS
GETTING a job selling Big Issue North magazines made Lara Stan feel like a “somebody”.
Lara, 21, was just a teenager when she landed herself a job selling the magazines, initially in Leeds and more recently in Mirfield where she is a familiar sight outside the Co-op store.
Four years on, she credits Big Issue with helping her to earn some cash just as she was starting a family.
Now Lara is a mum to three preschool children and is still earning money for her family by working part-time hours. On a good day, she might sell around 15 magazines.
“I did this when I was young and didn’t have a job. I was having my first baby.
“I can say that Big Issue helped me – I became part of their group. The Big Issue is a great help to people when you have nothing.
“You can sell it and feel somebody.”
Lara – known to many Mirfield residents by her nickname Jessica – enjoys her job most of the time but says the Covid-19 pandemic has taken some of the joy out of life.
“I really enjoy it – meeting people and hearing their stories. It’s lovely when you have a chat with people. It’s nice and joyful.”
However, she says the pandemic has left many people feeling down.
“There are people who are not happy anymore. We are living like robots.”
Just as we are chatting, Mirfield resident Lynn Blackburn, 54, hands Lara a takeaway cup of Costa coffee.
She describes Lara as a “determined, hard-working and lovely person”.
Lara is delighted to accept a hot drink on a chilly November day and it won’t be the only treat she receives today.
“People buy me sandwiches and coffee so I can get warm and eat,” she explains.
“It makes me feel special – like family, like part of the community.”
Passers-by sometimes hand her some cash, she says, which she doesn’t mind.
“It feels like they just want to help you out and they don’t want to read it [the magazine] because they have a lot of stuff going on.”
Lara, who was born in Spain to Romanian parents – she proudly calls herself ‘Romanian gypsy’ – and now lives in Leeds, said the
It makes me feel special – like family, like part of the community.