Tourists Fly Scottish Homeless Man To Sweden For Christmas

A heroic family took in a street beggar in Edinburgh during the festive period.

Annis Lindkvist and her sister Emma, two Swedish women who had spent time on holiday in Scotland, struck up a friendship with Jimmy Fraser after they asked him for directions.

The pair exchanged numbers with him before flying back to Sagmyra, and contacted him when they arrived home.

"The next thing I knew I was on a plane to Sweden," Jimmy told BBC Scotland.

Credit: Annis Lindkvist

Annis paid for a passport for the 54-year-old, as well as his flights, so he could spend a week over Christmas with her family.

"People promise you things all the time on the street but they never materialise and friends said I shouldn't go in case I was hung, drawn and quartered when I got there," he said. "But I thought I'm going to go for it as it's once-in-a- lifetime."

The former security guard was left homeless after a divorce, but now lives in a flat, according to BBC Scotland.

Despite his troubles he says that the trip, where he was taken to an ice hockey match, Christmas markets, midnight mass and had Christmas dinner on Christmas day, was 'a dream'.

Credit: Annis Lindkvist

Jimmy arrived on December 21 and returned to Edinburgh on the 27th, feeling over the moon with his festive week.

"I have never felt like this before for a homeless person," Annis said. "My mother was crying and crying when he left and my children have been asking every day when he is going to come back.

"There is a big place in my heart for him."

If only all of us could be this helpful and kind.

Topics: Christmas, Homelessness, Homeless

Mark McGowan

Mark is a journalist at LADbible, who joined in 2015 after a year as a freelance writer. In the past he blogged for independent football fan channel Redmen TV, after graduating from Staffordshire University with degrees in journalism and English literature. He has worked on campaigns such as UOKM8? and IIOC.