A BRADFORD man who changed his name by deed poll to Mick Jagger for a fresh start in life is among a group raising money for a homelessness charity with a six-week walk across the UK from west to east.

The Via Beata, meaning way of blessing, is a long-distance route across the widest part of the UK from the cathedral city of St David's in Pembrokeshire, Wales, to Lowestoft in Suffolk.

The route runs through a convent site in the village of Ditchingham, south Norfolk, where homelessness charity Emmaus Norfolk and Waveney is based.

Mick Jagger and Chloe Ward in WalesMick Jagger and Chloe Ward in Wales

Cecile Roberts, chief executive of Emmaus Norfolk and Waveney, said the plan for a 450-mile walk along the route - from St David's back to their site - was hatched when coming up with fundraising ideas for repairs to the ageing building.

A small group including three of the charity's current residents - known as companions - are more than halfway through the walk, having started last month.

Among them is Mick Jagger - who changed his name by deed poll for a new start.

The 63-year-old, from Bradford, said: "For years and years, well for 40, 50 years, I've been a compulsive gambler and I've been homeless so many times through the decades."

He said Emmaus was recommended to him by somebody at a soup kitchen in Leeds and it changed his life.

He has since been to rehab and is being supported by the charity in Ditchingham.

Explaining how he came to be Mick Jagger, he said: "I started changing my name in 2019 because I didn't like the person who I was.

"I didn't want to be known as a gambler, as virtually a dosser, you know what I mean.

"So I thought I'll reinvent myself and try a new approach to better myself.

"I was nicknamed Jagger when I was growing up so I thought why not just change to Mick Jagger and see how it goes.

"I used to have hair like Mick Jagger. I don't sing like him.

"I just thought why not use that name so I deed polled it and got accepted.

"I've lived with it since and I've just changed my life completely with a new name, new invention."

He continued: "I try not to tell anyone my past name because it brings bad memories up.

"That wasn't the real me. The real me is the me now, not who I was."

He said he wanted to take on the pilgrimage challenge to "give something back to something I truly believe in".

Chloe Ward, 24, of Hertfordshire, who started drinking aged 11, said of Emmaus: "Having somewhere to live but also being able to go into work and have a purpose is massive."

To donate, see: emmaus.org.uk/norfolk-waveney