Kind hearted strangers are helping a man who has spent decades living on the streets and is set to lose his livelihood due to an operation.

Richard, who sells the Big Issue to fund his minimal living expenses, will have to have a leg amputated due to complications caused by his chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

He faces being out of work for six to eights weeks, but an online fundraising page set up to help Richard has raised more than £5,000 so far.

It was started by Deborah Chester, who got to know Richard over the years by chatting to him at his pitch outside a Marks and Spencer in Lincoln.

The businesswoman, was briefly homeless herself having after losing her home in New Zealand when a tornado tore it to shreds in 2007.

She says the fundraiser for Richard was meant to be a surprise, but he’s well known enough in Lincoln for someone to let him know what was happening.

Deborah told Metro.co.uk: ‘He was shocked. He was overwhelmed by the love around him and how many people really love and support him.

‘At first I thought we might get about 500 pound. Never would I of expected to look and see the donations reaching 4,000 in the first 36 hours.

‘I could just go and hand him some money but it’s not about that.

‘It’s about the people of Lincolnshire wanting to help Richard out. Everyone seems to love him.’

Richard, who became homeless at 14 years old, used to travel everywhere with his dog named Stix, who passed away five months ago.

The two became inseparable after Richard rescued him as a puppy and gained a great sense of purpose looking after him.

While plenty of people in Lincoln greet Richard as they walk past, he’s unfortunately been targeted with taunts like ‘f*** off and get a job’, to which he says he has one.

Richard, who has been housed in a bedsit while he awaits his operation, says his job as a Big Issue seller has enabled him afford the travel fare to occasionally see his grandson outside the city.

He trained as a horticultural engineer and says he would love to go back to it, but his pulmonary condition and irritable bowel syndrome means he doesn’t have the strength for it any more.

Even selling the magazine on his pitch can be a challenge due to his breathing difficulties.

Deborah, 46, has had a brief spell of homelessness herself and knows how terrifying the prospect can be.

When her family lived in New Zealand in June 2007, she says she was woken up in the middle of the night by a nightmare about tornadoes.

Recalling the premonition, she said: ‘I woke in the morning feeling strange about the dream I had had the night before, in fact the dream stayed with me all day.’

That same month, she was working at home when her terrified daughter Paige ran to her shouting ‘mummy mummy what’s happening outside’.

Feeling like she had ‘been here before’, Deborah looked out of the window and saw tornadoes heading for their home in Taranaki.

She says her dream ended up saving her life, after picking up her daughters and running to a section of the house featured in the vision.

The tornadoes ripped off the roof and windows as Deborah lay on top of the children to shield them from the high speed winds.

She added: ‘I tried to calm them down but I myself was thinking we was going to die. The fear in my eyes said it all.

‘The noise was horrendous, like a jet engine at the side of your head at full speed.

‘We lost everything that night, all we was left with was the clothes we had on our backs.’

Luckily friends were able to put the family up in a spare room until they got themselves back on their feet.

Deborah and her husband Chris have gone on to run a successful business after inventing and patenting a car wheel protection system called RimPro-Tec before returning to Lincolnshire.

The motivational speaker is now writing a book about her life, titled ‘The Journey’, and plans to donate profits to charities to PTSD sufferers and homeless people.

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