A VOLUNTEER who took it upon himself to help a flood-hit estate despite being homeless has turned his life around.

Lee Moran was one of many heroic residents who rushed to the aid of stricken residents when their homes flooded in December 2015.

Mr Moran, a former homeless man who spent much of his young adult life in prison, helped direct aid relief to residents in Navigation Road, Rosemary Court and Rosemary Place flats.

He said: “In the October before the flood there was a heavy rain storm when I was staying on an allotment.

“I lost all my camping stuff equipment and was staying on a friend’s sofa when I did all my voluntary work.”

He became a familiar face in the area and his efforts won the praise of people across York.

His kind-hearted work earned him one of The Press’ York and District Medal, which recognised flood heroes, and he has since found work as a bin man and now has a temporary roof over his head in a room above the Puss ‘n’ Boots pub, in Hamilton Drive, Holgate.

“I absolutely love my job and wish it had done it earlier,” he said.

“It’s been fantastic and I have had a big support network.

“If there was anything I couldn’t deal with I would pass it on to Carrie MacMahon at the University of York and she would either point me in the right direction or deal with it herself.

“I’ve stepped back a bit from volunteering because of work but I still try and get to the estate as much as I can.

Mr Moran spent much of 2016 honing his voluntary skills and works with City of York Council’s Major Incident Response Team to prepare responses for other disasters.

This is linked to a Flood Warden Scheme which works in the Walmgate and Navigation Road area as a community response team.

He added: “I looked up some flood warden schemes in Doncaster and decided that is what we need in York.

“I went to a few meetings about helping further and it became more obvious we needed a bigger scheme

“What we do is respond to anything from a power failure to a major disaster so we can be there as first responders.”