Door to door collection

The British Heart Foundation do engage in door-to-door AKA face-to-face fundraising and they will call on homes up to 9:00pm.

More information here including a number you can call if you have any concerns. Note that fundraisers cannot collect cash or ask for one off donations. All they can do is ask if you would make donations by direct debit.

www.bhf.org.uk/what-we-do/our-policies/face-to-face

I have today emailed British Heart Foundation and asked for their comments. I've never thought of myself as naive, I feel I was just caught off guard and was trying to be helpful, but in hindsight I should have just explained I don't let strangers into my house and left it at that. I think a lot of young people do these jobs, they're just trying to earn a living like everyone else, but the charities they are working for need to ensure they abide by certain guidelines. I was as concerned for her welfare as I was for my own. I don't want to mistrust everyone I come across, although I'm not daft, and I realise that's the sort of world we live in now. I appreciate all your comments, and perhaps my post will help with awareness if others have doorstep callers. 8 pm is not too late for me to have visitors so maybe I need one of these new doorbells so at least I can see who it is!

Very difficult. What was the poor girl to do if she was no where near a public toilet? Public toilets are not very common and we have no pubs near us. I remember once out walking with my daughter to see the Christmas lights in our area and became desperate to go to the toilet and was having difficulty walking, In the end I hide behind a bush and went and luckily no one was around. Many areas don't have bushes to hide behind,

On the other hand, sadly I would be very wary and reluctant to let someone into my house to use the toilet especially if I was on my own.

Janeainsworth I m not a nasty person and I would and do try to be helpful wherever I can, but you have to be sensible and it’s nighttime, you are on your own and a stranger wants to come in your house it just isn’t sensible or safe to say yes Janie was lucky and she was a genuine young lady but how easy it could have been the other way round
Just to illustrate how you can never tell a criminal
Many years ago when I was much more trusting and probably niave I was at Victoria changing coaches with a fairly long wait , a nice looking, very well dressed young man got talking to me. he told me how worried and upset he was as he’d had a phone call to tell him his father was gravely ill and he was desperate to get to him and he’d had his money stolen, he went backwards and forwards to the phone box trying to get his bank it was a Saturday (in those days banks didn’t open on Saturdays) to no avail he was so upset we talked for a long time he told me all about his job his family his father etc I eventually felt so sorry for him thinking how I d be if it was my Dad in the end I asked him how much his fare would be I think it was £30 I offered to give it him he very cleverly refused it point blank saying he couldn’t possibly do that, he went back to the phone and came back with tears in his eyes I offered again and this time he accepted carefully taking my name and address down and promising me he would post the money to me as soon as he got to his fathers I was so sure he was genuine ....each day I looked for the letter which of course never came
That is what a criminal looks like

A little update - I had a prompt reply from BHF and they apologised and said they will look into this, it's not something that should happen. They have offered to remove my name from the list for future calls.