Pastor Mick, who once lived on the streets with addictions, brings Christmas hope to thousands with his Church on the Street
14:15, 15 Dec 2025
At the Church on the Street in Burnley, Pastor Mick Fleming is opening a cupboard packed with neatly folded coats of all brands, colours and sizes. "We don't give out poverty coats," he says firmly. "If they're all the same then you're marked out, aren't you, as wearing a poverty coat, a peasant coat. We're not having that. We're giving something that means every kid can fit in."
He pulls out branded coats and puffa jackets. "They're all good brands, the stuff kids want," Mick, 59, says. "Different kinds of coats and different colours." Pointing to the cupboard, he adds: "That's not just a coat, that's self-worth, that's care and compassion and community – that’s love."
Pastor Mick has spent a life doing things his own way. The foodbank at the Church on the Street uses skills he learned the hard way in the drugs trade, back when he was a fixer in Manchester's gangland. "I tell you what a foodbank is, it's a drug deal," he says, matter-of-factly. "It's really simple – you take the commodity, drop it off in one place, put it in bags and then you distribute it. It's logistics."
Like so many of the people he now serves, Pastor Mick has lived through extreme trauma – raped as a child, bereaved, living on the streets with addictions, and sectioned because of poor mental health – before finding peace and purpose through the church. His addiction led him to dealing drugs and later becoming a violent debt collector for drugs gangs. He was arrested for murder twice, armed robbery three times, and for countless firearms offences.
"I was a hard man addicted to crack and alcohol," the clergyman says. "I was scary, and I looked absolutely scary. Bald head, 18 stone and nuts. When you're running up and down with shooters tucked down the back of your pants and you're doing stupid things, and you start suffering from drug-induced psychosis you become dangerous don't you?"
In 2009, after he found he couldn't shoot a man walking with his children and a suicide attempt failed, Mick experienced a spiritual awakening. He got clean, and went on to set up his own church as he studied for ordination. Since then, he's dedicated his life to creating community and serving those neglected or left behind by traditional services. And, as he puts it, he uses the practical skills that made him a successful criminal to help those in need.
"A long time ago I met Jesus in the shop doorway because I couldn't find him in the church," he explains. "That's where Jesus lives, in shop doorways, with a girl selling herself for a tenner, with hungry children, with the poor. I know about that – I know where to go to find it, most Christians don't. So, when I started, I went out on the street. I took sandwiches, a flask, a suitcase of my old clothes, cigarettes…I sat down on the floor with the lads and lasses who were begging. Within two weeks there were 80 people, we had a church.
When Mick's work to feed people during the pandemic was featured on television news in 2022, it caught the attention of Prince William and Kate Middleton. The then Duke and Duchess of Cambridge came to visit Church on the Street and hear how it worked.
Mick was moved to hear the Prince of Wales, who lost his mother Princess Diana when he was 15 years old, speak to a young, bereaved boy called Deacon, telling him not to stop talking about his mother. Mick’s church is a large, welcoming building tucked behind shops in the centre of Burnley, and today it's bustling, with people keeping warm, enjoying a simple meal and using the recovery programmes and NHS treatment centres.
When we visit on a day of plummeting temperatures and snow falling on the moors, the Pastor's phone barely stops ringing – with back-to-back calls from mums desperate for help. "That lady has two kids," he explains, "Six and seven. And they've got nothing left. She's got no food for tonight's tea. They’re cold, she's run out of options. She sounds like she could become suicidal."
He adds: "One of the others was paid a couple of weeks ago but it’s gone by week three. People are working but the cost of living is making life very, very hard. Look at the cost of food…it's doubled but wages and benefits haven't. This is what it's like. This is why we do what we do. This cold weather makes everything worse. People are having to put their heating on, they're on top up/pay as you go, so they're paying for that extra heat now, it's not a bill coming down the line. It means there’s nothing left for food today. And if you can't buy food, how do you afford a winter coat and boots?"
That's where Pastor Mick’s annual CAS – Coats and Shoes – appeal comes in, providing free winter coats and boots to hundreds of children in Burnley and beyond. The town has one of the highest rates of child poverty in the UK – 40 per cent, ahead of the 22 per cent national average. Anyone can ask to be considered for the scheme or refer someone in need, including local agencies.
For Lindsay Turnmore, 48, the CAS appeal is a lifeline, as she collects a warm new puffa jacket and a sturdy pair of waterproof boots for her eight-year-old son to get him through a cold, wet Lancashire winter. "It's just brilliant," she says, "Because everything costs so much now. Prices just keep going up, you're trying to keep up with all the bills, it gets harder. And kids grow so fast, so this is going to really help me. It's so cold at the minute, it's a good feeling knowing he's going to be warm and fit in. That really matters to kids, doesn't it? You want them to feel like they're fitting in with their mates. I don't know what we'd do if we couldn't come here. It's a life saver."
As Mick explains: "Child poverty is at an all-time high, that’s the heart-breaking thing. Here in Burnley and across the UK. Times are tough for everyone. We have pensioners now who can't afford to maintain even a frugal lifestyle, suicide rates are sky high, people who are middle class are feeling the pinch badly, working class people they've been sold a lie. This appeal is just the little bit we can do to help, but it will make a real difference to children and families facing hardship."
This summer Pastor Mick sold all his possessions and moved into a motor home he calls his "church on wheels" as he continues his mission to serve the vulnerable "where they are hurting most". The man whose life was changed when a light blinded him as he prepared to carry out a gangland execution, says "it won't be easy, but I believe this is what I'm meant to do… I kept reading in scripture about travelling light."
Make a donation to the Winter Coat and Shoe Appeal here.