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This Morning viewers in tears over Manchester’s homeless hero

Stephen Jones helped victims of Monday night's attack

Homeless Stephen Jones rushed to help people after the Manchester terror attack on Monday night.

And today he appeared on This Morning alongside hosts Holly Willoughby and Rylan Clark-Neal to relive what happened.

A bomb was set off after an Ariana Grande concert at the Manchester Arena. It killed 22 people and left a further 59 with life-threatening injuries.

Stephen and a friend were outside the arena when the explosion went off and he revealed:

“We got up and ran at first, but then we realised we needed to go back and start helping people.”

As Holly praised him for running towards the chaos without any fear for his own safety, humble Stephen was quick to correct her:

“We did run away at first, but then we ran back after realising that we were okay and we knew that people needed help, that’s when we ran back.”

Read more: Husband of Manchester victim leaves GMB viewers in tears

The presenters revealed Stephen was homeless after caring for his nan, who then passed away.

“I get upset talking about it,” he replied. “It’s just the situation I’m in at the minute.

“People tar homeless people with the same brush and think we haven’t got a heart.

“I saw people stepping over children to get away, leaving them there, it wasn’t the right thing to be done.”

As viewers went onto Twitter in their droves, they expressed their admiration for Stephen’s courage, with many admitting he’d brought them to tears.

Rylan went on to reveal Stephen has been offered an interview for a potential job.

“Yeah I’m meeting someone later today for a restaurant interview,” Stephen replied.

He admitted it was weird that people now recognise him and are coming up to shake his hand and ask for selfies, having felt invisible until now.

Read more: Eamonn Holmes forced to apologise for police remark following Manchester attack

With West Ham owner David Sullivan’s son appearing on the sofa with Holly and Rylan, he told how he and his father are trying to help Stephen by paying his rent for him for six months.

They are working with charity The Booth Centre to support Stephen from now on. And for his part, Stephen is keen to move onto a happier chapter in his life – and is really grateful to everyone who’s enabling him to do it.

“My love goes out to them all,” he said. “To the people that have put [fundraising] pages together, thank you very much, I’d like to say thank you for all your kind comments.

“I did what everyone else would have done.”

We think he did far more than that. What a hero.


Carena Crawford
Associate Editor (Soaps)