Vicar attends Lambeth Palace hunger inquiry

The Rev Keith Hebden, of St Mark’s, Nottingham Road, began his 40-day water and fruitjuice-only diet on 5th March as part of the national End Hunger Fast campaign.

The Rev Hebden, of St Mark’s, Nottingham Road, Mansfield, began his 40-day diet of just water and fruit juice on 5th March, as part of the national End Hunger Fast campaign.

End Hunger Fast held a national fasting day on Friday and asked participtants to tweet pcitures of themselves with empty plates to highlight the issue.

And the day was a real success, which saw the campaign trending on the social media network as an important topic, with a reach of more than one million Twitter users via the 2,000 people tweeting pictures.

Said Keith: “It meant a lot, more people knew about the campaign than before because 2,000 people were fasting and were telling their friends.

“We want to stop it being about blaming the poor and say we need to do something about hunger.”

The national drive aims to highlight the issue of food poverty and the rise in food banks, and comes after forty-three Christian leaders, including 27 Anglican bishops, signed a letter urging Prime Minister David Cameron to ensure people get enough to eat.

But Keith’s ordeal will come to an end on Sunday as he reaches his 40th day of fasting.

The vicar will be weened back onto food slowly at first with a diet of pureed meals.

“I am giddy with happiness,” said Keith.

“And I will not be doing this again.”

For more details on the campaign CLICK HERE