Rahela Pecican, M&S, Culverhouse Cross, Cardiff
Rahela says that her pitch feels like her second home, because she has so many friends there
Photo: Exposure Photo Agency
I like it in Cardiff but it is very expensive, and especially now I’m struggling with my rent because my landlord put it up. I pay £1,295 per month, which is very hard for me. It went up from £1,095 a month recently. My landlord wants to sell his property. He says I have to leave the house in July and he will forget about the arrears I owe.
Some of my customers know about this and they have asked me if I have found anywhere else to live. They’re also trying to help me by asking friends if they have anything for me. But there is no news yet.
It has also been difficult to keep up with bills. My husband works at a car wash but doesn’t earn very much and sometimes he also sells Big Issue. I’m struggling a lot at the moment and it’s making me feel very depressed.
I’ve been selling the magazine for about three years. I started because I was struggling and I have a family to support, so I needed some money to pay my rent and for my kids to get whatever they need and to make them happy.
When I go to my pitch I feel like I am going to my second home, I have customers and friends there. Sometimes my customers bring me food to bring home to my children and help me with nappies or clothes for them too. I ask my customers how they are and I help them sometimes when they need trolleys or if they are struggling to carry their children and shopping to the car.
Big Issue help me with food vouchers now when I need them, and sometimes they let me buy magazines and pay for them when I have sold them two or three days later.
I can’t imagine my life without Big Issue because it does help me a lot. I have so many friends from Big Issue and they’re very kind, they even come to my house and see my children. At Christmas they bring toys and gifts for my children. They help me when I don’t have enough food for my kids.
There is a lady named Claire who has done a lot for me – she is like my sister. Sometimes after Christmas I bring some Romanian food for my customers to taste. I think every Romanian family will make sarmale, which is rice, meat, cabbage and sour cabbage.
I want to make my family happy, especially my kids. They grow up so fast and I want to give them a nice education. I like that they are currently growing up in a good school and am worried that they will have to move school if we have to move house, because they have a lot of friends in this school and they really enjoy it there. I don’t know what I am going to do if I have to leave. I don’t know where to go, what to do. I hope I don’t end up on the street with my children because I have a little baby boy who’s only five months old.
I don’t have a lot of free time but I like to play Uno against my kids when I can. Sometimes I win and they are like, “Oh mummy wins again!” Sometimes I watch them and they are so happy. I feel like, how can they smile that much? I wonder what I would do without my children sometimes because they give me strength and they make me laugh when I am sad. They are a blessing for me. They are everything for me. I have to smile otherwise people don’t see me when I am on my pitch. Sometimes it’s very difficult to smile but you have to do everything to smile.
I wish that God blesses all my customers and everyone who helps me with everything.
Interview: Liam Geraghty
Marks and Spencer, Copthorne Way, Culverhouse Cross, Cardiff, UK