Readers will be able to make choices to experience how people fall into homelessness, following four stories with multiple endings, choosing between someone who has recently faced bereavement, left the armed forces, just arrived in the UK, or is battling addiction. Each story is based on the life of a real Big Issue vendor.

The innovative and interactive story is playable throughout the magazine as well as at www.bigissue.com. Three stories feature in the magazine, as readers follow the tale from page to page, reading snippets below regular magazine features and making decisions about what to do next, before hearing about the real vendor’s life experience.

Readers can choose from an extra story in the online experience, clicking through the choices and seeing where they lead. Each story is illustrated by artists who have experienced homelessness, in collaboration with arts charity Accumulate.

Earl John Charlton is a Big Issue vendor in Newcastle whose life story of overcoming homelessness and addiction has inspired one of the paths that readers can explore. He said: “My survival instinct kicked in when I found myself homeless – it was built in me from a young age – and readers will be able to experience that.

“I think it’s vitally important that people know stories like mine so people can acknowledge homelessness, addiction and mental health and tackle them. I want to be at the forefront of getting that story out there and this experience will do that.”