When Mark Eaton-Lees tucked himself into the backseat of his Volkswagen Polo each night, wrapped in a duvet and hope, he had no idea that one day he’d be walking across a graduation stage with first-class honours.
The Wolverhampton native left his recruitment job chasing a dream, to start a scuba diving center. But when the room he arranged to rent fell through, all he had left was his car and a free restaurant parking lot in Exeter. “I bought a pillow and a duvet and slept in my Volkswagen Polo,” Mark said. “It was scary, but I knew then that I couldn’t go on as I was.”
He applied for work, but with no clean clothes or facilities, office jobs were out of reach. After a health scare he believes was early hypothermia, he leaned on family and moved back home. Then, a chance meeting changed everything.
While working as a long-distance courier, Mark met a young homeless man. “All he wanted was some stability – a job and a place to live,” Mark said. “That conversation changed me. Rebuilding my own life wasn’t enough. I wanted to be part of the solution.”
That desire launched a journey. In 2022, he began studying criminology and social policy at Swansea University. “It’s helped me explore how homelessness is criminalised,” he said. He also started volunteering with Shelter Cymru, Llamau, Crisis, and Expert Link, and now works with the Bevan Foundation on research into homelessness and children.
Next stop? A master’s in social research at the University of Sheffield. “It might sound strange, but I’m glad I went through it. That experience shaped who I am.”
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