Sierra Leone's Fastest Man Slept in London Parks

Jimmy Thoronka grew up in Sierra Leone. His birth parents were killed in the country's civil war, and at about the age of five he was placed in a war child camp. He was then adopted by Jelikatu Kargbo, a police nurse, and grew up in the village of Gbendenbu, west of Freetown. He began sprinting at primary school; his mother opposed it at first but came round.

He became his country's top 100 metres sprinter, won medals in African competition and received the 2013 male athlete of the year award from the Sports Writers of Sierra Leone. He was the first Sierra Leonean athlete to carry the Queen's baton ahead of the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, where he ran in a relay.

After the Games ended in August 2014 he did not go home. According to The Guardian in March 2015, a bag holding his money and passport was stolen at Glasgow station. Afraid to approach the police, he begged for the fare to London, after first staying briefly with an acquaintance in Leicester who later asked him to leave. In London he slept in parks and on night buses, begged for pound coins to buy chips, sometimes went without food, and washed in public toilets.

He was arrested for overstaying his visa and held overnight at Walworth police station pending immigration processing. The article says he was neither working illegally nor claiming benefits.

While he was in the UK, his mother, adopted siblings and uncle died in the Ebola epidemic. After the story was published, people offered him housing, a fundraising page raised over 1,600 pounds and a petition was started. He faced an uncertain future, with little chance of training in Sierra Leone, and said he hoped to become a top sprinter.