When homeless people meet Dan Wheeler at the door of the Kingston Churches Action on Homelessness (KCAH) drop-in centre just off Fife Road, Kingston, they maybe comforted by the fact he used to be a street sleeper seeking help himself.

An outreach worker with 20 years’ experience and an “attachment” to Christianity, Mr Wheeler has been with the KCAH for nine months, having previously worked for the Kaleidoscope Project helping Kingston drug addicts.

Tall and broad with tattoos over his arms, despite being affable and friendly, he carries the look of a man who has spent some time in the darkness.

“That’s because I have,” he confirms, later confessing to a “mad” three years living on the streets, culminating in a “run in with the law”.

He said: “When the guys out here shout at me saying ‘you do not know what it is like’. I tell them ‘yes I bloody do mate’.

“Rather than regret that time in my life I think of it now as my training. I would not be able to do the work I do as effectively as I do without that experience.

“It is not an easy job. On average one homeless person a month I work with dies. You have to block it out otherwise you could not do it.”

As a directionless teenage rliving on the streets of Kent, Mr Wheeler was sent on a confidence-building weekend away with the probation service after he “whacked a copper”.

It was a trip that would change his life.

He said: “I saw the effect these trips had on the kids and on me, and said ‘that is it, that is what I want to do with my life’. Suddenly everything I had done before made complete sense.”

For those who believe the homeless only have themselves to blame, Mr Wheeler has one piece of sage advice. “Remember – there but for the grace of God go I”.

“We are all a couple of pieces of bad luck, a couple of bad decisions, away from being homeless.”

To nominate an unsung hero call 020 8744 4244.