Edinburgh girl, 10, buys egg sandwich and hot chocolate for homeless man after ‘worrying all day’

An Edinburgh mum is feeling very proud after her 10-year-old daughter saw a homeless man and decided to buy him an egg sandwich and hot chocolate after worrying about him all day.

Sienna Gilbert with the man, near the Scottish Parliament building. Pic: Helen Gilbert

Sienna Gilbert was in her mum Helen’s car when she spotted the man lying on a bench outside of the Scottish Parliament building, at about 7:30am yesterday (Thursday) morning.

Helen reassured Sienna he was sleeping because he had nowhere to live, after her daughter became “extremely concerned” he may have been dead.

But Helen, who lives in Leith, said: “As soon as she came out of school she was concerned he was still there and that he hadn’t drunk anything for days.”

The pair passed the man again as they went up to collect Helen’s son from a bus stop near the Meadows.

Helen said her daughter was desperate to stop on the way back to buy something for the man.

At about 5:30pm, they stopped in at a Tesco shop and bought an egg sandwich, a packet of ready salted Kettle crisps and a hot chocolate before pulling over near the Parliament building at Holyrood.

Helen, who works in hospital operating theatres, added: “She (Sienna) was a bit concerned about how to approach him but I just said, ‘he is a human being like us. He might refuse what we have bought but at least we have offered.’

“But when we got there he was actually eating something already.

“She went over and told him, ‘we have bought you a hot drink and some food, would you like them?’ He was very accepting of what we bought him, which was nice for her, and he was friendly.

“She wanted to go and get her pocket money to buy it herself.

“Both of my kids are considerate. I’m very proud of her wanting to do that, of course. They take a few moments to embrace doing the nice things in life instead of just going along with the crowd.”

Giving her own take on it, Sienna, who attends St Mary’s Leith Primary, said: “I thought in my head he was really homeless and did not have enough stuff or anything to drink.

“I was worrying about it all day at school and was glad when he took it.”

Helen said she did not catch the man’s name but stressed he was very thankful to Sienna for the kind gesture.

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