LIFE is a lottery - as those who had bread and water for breakfast at the Harris Library on Friday discovered. They were the unlucky 60 per cent of guests to the Oxfam Hunger Breakfast, who drew short straws and ended up representing the 800 million people in the world who don't have enough to eat.

The event was organised to draw attention to the scale of global poverty and coincided with the charity's national Fast.

It certainly brought the message home to a group of VIPs who found themselves squatting on the floor with nothing but a few crumbs to nibble on.

Sharing the scruffy old rug were MP Audrey Wise; Deputy Mayor of Preston Ron Marshall; town clerk Jim Carr; and chair of Lancashire County Council, Hazel Harding.

Coun Marshall said: "I thought it was a very useful demonstration of the problems of the world. I was one of the 60 per cent who didn't have enough to eat but only use up 15 per cent of the world's resources.

"I don't usually have breakfast anyway so I didn't mind," he added: "But it certainly made you think about it."

Twenty-five per cent of guests had toast and coffee to symbolize those who have enough to eat and don't draw on the worlds resources.

But they all watched on hungrily as the lucky 15 per cent tucked in to a tasty banquet of eggs and bacon, cooked meats, fresh crusty bread and exotic fruit.

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