Corrie star's damp night on the cobbles raises cash for Blackpool charity

First the Blackpool-born actress, who plays Pat Phelan’s daughter in the long-running soap, made a splash by taking part in a celebrity boat race for Sport Relief on Friday evening.

Then she travelled back to her home town to sleep out in the open air all night with 250 others to highlight the work that homeless charity Streetlife does in the resort.

And after her marathon effort Nicola tweeted to wellwishers: “Wet and cold, but appreciating just how lucky I am to be able to go home.”

Nicola, who grew up in North Shore and was a pupil at Arnold School, recently became an ambassador of Streetlife, added: “Thank you to everyone who has donated and thanks to those sleeping rough next to me who shared their inspirational stories.”

The sleep out, on the cobbles of St John’s Square - not Wetherfield - was the fourth, and biggest, by youth charity Streetwise. The 250 who took part more than doubled last year’s figure of 109.

Jane Hugo, the charity’s CEO, said: “The weather was really against us - the worst we have had - but it didn’t dampen our spirits. It was raining, but thank goodness it wasn’t freezing and we weren’t having to put up with the Beast from the East.

“But I suppose the conditions helped all of us to appreciate how horrible it must be to do that every night and have no home to go to.

“Nicola was absolutely brilliant and helped us take collection buckets around when people were leaving the pubs.”

Earlier Nicola had been on the losing ITV team in the Sport Relief Boat Race.