Homeless Robert Balmer met his future wife while begging on the streets of Oxford. Now the happy couple are setting up a business together, writes David Duffy.

Robert and Kathryn are taking to the road with a mobile grocery business, thanks to cash help of more than £5,000 from the Prince's Youth Business Trust.

Robert, 27, said: "The trust has been a blessing for me. I was brought up in children's homes and left them without any skills at all. It is almost impossible to get a job if you are homeless and I had to resort to begging."

Robert, who lives with Kathryn, 24, at Forresters Tower, Wood Farm Road, Oxford, said: "That's how I met Kathryn. She was an assistant manager of a shop in the centre of Oxford and walked past where I was begging every day.

"One day I plucked up courage and asked her if she fancied a cup of coffee. We have been together ever since.

"After reading a lot about village shops closing down I had an idea for a mobile grocery van, targeting villages and housing estates where there are no shops. Kathy has several years' experience in retailing and refined my ideas."

The trust gave the couple a £250 test marketing grant and found an adviser to help them for three years. It also awarded a bursary of £1,500 and a loan of £3,500 to start up the business as a partnership.

Robert added: "I know the mobile grocery is not going to make me a fortune, but we will be making a living and I shall be saving up to open up my own grocery shop in the future."

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