AN Uxbridge company executive slept rough in a cold central London park on Thursday night with 15 of Britain’s top business movers and shakers.

Martin Bartlett, Vice-President of Operations and Finance at Herbalife, was taking part in a drive to tackle youth homelessness and raise vital funds for Action for Children.

Eighty thousand children and young people experience homelessness every year, and one in three will attempt to take their own life.

Action for Children, supported by Herbalife, works with the country’s most vulnerable children and young people to help keep them off the streets.

Mr Bartlett said: “It was very humbling to take part in this incredible initiative. I spoke to a 23-year-old who was rejected by his parents at nine and who then spent years going from foster home to foster home, eventually ending up sleeping rough.

“He was abused and faced violence. What he experienced was unimaginable. Now, through Action for Children, this young man has a stable home and has a focus.”

Mr Bartlett joined the other businessmen in London’s Paternoster Square for what was the second CEO Sleepout organised by the charity. It is expected to raise more than £150,000.