A DEDICATED Evesham campaigner’s bid to encourage people to ‘get messy’ to help raise awareness of mental health issues has seen him raise £3,000 in just eight months.
The Observer reported in March on how Tom Mills hoped his #messy4mind challenge would emulate the success of the Ice Bucket Challenge in 2014 which saw people across the globe soak themselves with ice cold water in videos to raise awareness of motor neurone disease.
His version of the challenge tasked kind-hearted participants to ‘get messy’, for example being gunged or getting pied in the face and nominate friends to do the same.
Since he launched the idea he has have had more than 37,000 views and over 500 shares on Facebook and won the support of X Factor contestant Sohelia Clifford as well as the leading mental heath charity Mind.
As well as support in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, Tom’s message even inspired Spencer B Davis from Wisconsin in the United States to get gunged for mental health.
“I go to a lot of independent wrestling shows so they have been really big help with this as well, we even had a raffle at one shows to support Mind,” he added.
“Attack Pro Wrestling in Cheltenham and Riptide Wrestling in Brighton have been very supportive with messy4mind this year and I have been very grateful as I have been also interacting with fans who suffer with depression and anxiety and have taken up the challenge themselves.”
WWE UK superstar Millie Mckenzie also stepped out the squared circle to show her support.
“Millie has been very supportive with this challenge this year she even did a video plea for us to get this challenge to 100 people we cant thank her enough,” Tom added.
Former CBBC presenter Dave Benson Philips helped out with a messy4mind challenge with one of the independent wrestlers at Riptide Wrestling in Brighton back in August and backed Tom’s efforts to raise awareness.
“I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw Spencer gunging himself, he’s our first and only person so far from America to take up the challenge and I am proud and amazed at what he did,” the campaginer added.
“We have had so many people be very supportive of this challenge this year and we cant thank them enough. Even when I go out people have come up to me and said to me its amazing what your doing keep it up and that means a lot to hear people say these things.”
“It’s been such an amazing experience to interact with so many people about this to show them its okay not to be okay.”
Now the challenge has been accepted by 100 people, Tom is getting set to ‘get messy’ once again when he steps into the ring after an Attack Pro Wrestling show later this month in Bristol.
“It might be a bit cold but I don’t care its for a good cause at the end of the day and that’s the whole point of messy4mind is to raise awareness and have some fun,” he added.
“We really do hope messy4mind grows even bigger in 2019 I think its been very successful and I think we can make more of an impact next year for sure.
Visit www.facebook.com/m4mnd for more.
