A group of Manchester fundraisers are hoping to emulate the success of Norwich City’s recent viral mental health viral video success as they hunt for Manchester’s most obscure ball sports to spread the Movember message that as “No Balls Should be Ignored.”
The men, who walked from Anfield to Old Trafford in 2021 under the tagline The ‘Tache of Two Cities, and last year embarked on the ‘World’s Rudest Pub Crawl,’ featuring a route map drew a classic teen graffiti favourite on GPS, will mark Movember this year by visiting as many Manchester ball sport venues as they can this year from the more obscure to the mainstream, including at a petanque club in Stretford, a golf club, tennis club, rugby club, squash centre, basketball centre, bowling alley and snooker club, in a walk they have named ‘What a load of balls!’to remind everyone to ‘never ignore your balls’.
Norwich City’s recent clip in support of mental health awareness has pulled in almost 60m views on Twitter since it was launched on Twitter last month. Manchester walker Phil Horne said: “I was really glad to see Norwich City’s video for Mental Health Day go viral. It reminded us that sometimes it’s not easy to see the signs that someone is struggling to cope. Let’s keep that conversation going beyond Mental Health Day – we should have this front of mind all the time.”
Movember ambassador and walk leader, George Frewer, pictured beginning his walk at Sale Sharks on Friday night, added: “This year we want to remind everyone that testicular cancer and suicide don’t discriminate. Yes, there are high profile cases but these issues are affecting normal men, up and down the country, every single day, but there is stuff we can do to prevent it.
“Whether you’re a football fan, a keen golfer, or you’re into tennis, snooker or boules; we should all be checking our balls and we can all help to remove the stigma around men’s mental health to help prevent suicide.”
The main walk began on Friday night at Sale Sharks and ended at the Etihad in time for Manchester City’s drubbing of Bournemouth on Saturday having covered a combined 350km. However the team are still keen for ball sports club to get in touch – the more obscure the sport the better – to join their roster, and for donations from the public, businesses and organisations to support the annual national Movember campaign that highlights suicide rates among men and testicular cancer statistics.
