Jamie Lomas felt a responsibility to shine a light on homelessness.
The ‘Hollyoaks’ actor has produced and starred in ‘Lead Belly’ – a short film which follows ex-soldier Mark living on the streets and suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder – and he wanted to show people what many military veterans have to cope with as they come back to society after serving their country.
According to the Manchester Evening News, Jamie told the audience at a screening and Q&A session: "I thought nobody should be living on the streets and going through that.
"I found out how many of our armed forces are living on the streets and to me that’s not acceptable.
"As artists we owe it to the people struggling to do the story justice. You have to do your research. We talked to many people and got their sides of the story."
During the screening, an ex-armed forces personnel spoke out from the audience and revealed the short film resonated with his own experiences.
He told Jamie: "It touched quite close to home for me. Watching it was quite hard because I’ve been there myself.
"Leaving the armed forces and getting back into civilian life is very hard."
Jamie, 44, also revealed his goals of turning the harrowing project into a TV drama.
He said: "It’s probably going to go on the film festival circuit and we want to develop it into a three part drama.
"It’s a journey that’s started and I don’t want to finish."
The soap star – who plays Warren Fox on ‘Hollyoaks’ – has also set up an online fundraising campaign for the film, and he wants to generate more than £10,000 to help raise awareness and support charities Combat Street, Soldiers Off The Streets as veteran nursing home organisation Broughton House.
Jamie Lomas opens up on homelessness film
