STEP by Step’s seventh Sleep Out Challenge held at Aldershot Town’s EBB Stadium is nearing the £10,000 mark in its fundraising.

Young performers taking part in Step by Step’s Big Music Project with the West End Centre and Forward 4Wiz, took the stage as the headline act at the Sleep Out Challenge.

And Sleep Out participants had been welcomed by busking group, Sgt Steppers Homeless Hearts Club Band who warmed up the crowd with fun renditions of some classic tunes.

The band are gearing up to perform as they run and busk the entire London Marathon for Step by Step next spring.

The audience was then blown away by Ilona’s voice for a few songs, before the show was unexpectedly halted due to a technical hitch.

Fortunately, the wood-fired pizza oven and soup kitchen were on hand to provide refreshments to the sleepers before everyone settled down to watch a film on the EBB Stadium terraces, before the real challenge kicked in.

Shortly after 11pm, lights out was called. Step by Step’s 80 or so Sleep Out participants, who included young people supported by Step by Step, volunteers, staff, and supporters, then tried to settle into their cardboard creations, or simply into sleeping bags, and aimed to get some shut eye on the cold, hard terraces.

Erin, 11, who took part in the Sleep Out Challenge for the fifth time this year, said: “My favourite part is where everyone’s going to sleep and the lights go out and you snuggle into your sleeping bag. I think I’ve raised around £250.”

Erin was one of around 80 sleepers, many of who raised funds in teams. Surprisingly, Erin wasn’t the youngest sleeper, that crown lies with Lucy at only four years old.

Lucy and her sister, Olivia, six, had built a cardboard gingerbread house and cardboard Big Ben to camp out in and were very excited. The gingerbread house took second place in the cardboard shelter competition.

One particular fundraiser, James, had a very personal reason for wanting to support Step by Step through his Sleep Out Challenge. He said: “This charity changed my life.

“Things could have gone very differently for me. When I was homeless at 16 years old, Step by Step gave me the tools and support to achieve what I have to date.”

James’ fundraising page shows more than £840 raised against his target of £500 which he wanted to raise as this is the cost to support one young person for one week in emergency accommodation.