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Have you seen the Birmingham Spiderman?

Written by
Jon Cook
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Spiderman - an acrobatic hero with arachnid DNA who, er, walks the streets of Birmingham feeding the homeless sandwiches.

Yes, you read that right, Spiderman is alive and well and, apparently, he's a Brummie with a commitment to helping those less fortunate than himself.

Ok, so yeah, we're pretty sure that the Birmingham Spiderman isn't the actual Spiderman, but as one look at the video from I Am Birmingham below shows, whoever it is behind this is a true hero in a city with the highest homeless rate in the UK.

We managed to track him down in his Spidey Lair (which is, naturally, somewhere in Birmingham) and ask the man himself a couple of quick questions...

Hi Spiderman. Firstly, we have to ask; why?
'I'm trying to help those most in need in our society by giving them some of the most basic things we need to survive; food and some clothing when kindly donated.

'As well as this I'm pushing for a cultural shift in our ideologies, we need to break down the depersonification of the homeless and the vulnerable and look at these people as human with thoughts, feelings and needs.

'Most of the time people ignore them or demonise them, and I'm glad to be inspiring people to take action and help.'

What was it that moved you to actually get up and do this?
'I first started helping the homeless and vulnerable at the age of 17 when I got a facebook invite to attend and help out at a food drive. And it was a real eye-opener to the extent of the problem.

'Ever since then I've always done what I can to help the homeless and vulnerable. But just over a month ago, I wanted a way to make people smile and become interested in doing good things like this, so I took it upon myself to don the costume of one of my childhood heroes whilst helping people.

'Spiderman is the costume I chose, as dressing as my other childhood hero, my dad, probably wouldn't have had the same impact.'

You can follow Spidey's homeless-helping exploits on Facebook and on Twitter, and if you see him slinging his way across the sandwich isle in a supermarket near you, make sure you give him a nod of support before he disappears off into the night.

 
 
 
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