An incredible £36,000 has been raised by a group of daredevils this past weekend for one of Manchester‘s most iconic charities.
It certainly wasn’t for the faint-hearted or those with a fear of heights, but last weekend, over 100 brave individuals decided to properly test their mettle by abseiling off one of the city’s tallest residential skyscrapers, the 26-storey One Regent Tower in Castlefield – and it was all for a brilliant cause.
As mad as it sounds, these daring Mancs took on the task with the goal of raising as much money as possible for one of the city’s longest-standing charities, We Love MCR Charity (WLMC).
It was part of the charity’s 2022 ‘Challenge Event Series’.
The abseil was just one of a set of mind-over-matter challenges that have been, and will continue to raise vital funds for the charity’s work supporting Manchester’s communities and young people.
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Given that people love to test themselves, and the fact that abseils are normally done by mountaineers and not in the heart of city centres off multi-storey skyscrapers, the demand to take part was high and places ran out really quickly – but in the end, a total of 105 people completed the challenge on both Saturday and Sunday, with a number of notable names taking part.
We did it!! This weekend 100+ daredevil We Love MCR supporters raised £36,000 for our work and completed Manchester's biggest EVER abseil 💪
Thanks to all the participants + volunteers who made it a special weekend ❤️ To the next challenge…
The Lord Mayor of Manchester, Donna Ludford, and Deputy Lord Mayor, Yasmine Dar, were two of the famous faces to complete the challenge, as well as Leader of Manchester City Council, Bev Craig.
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The staggering 26-storey challenge was officially the biggest top-to-bottom abseil in Manchester history.
Footage and pictures from the events not only show how incredible Manchester’s skyline is from the One Regent roof, but also just how daring the challengers actually were to take part.
105 brave individuals tested their mettle by abseiling off one of the city’s tallest residential skyscrapers / Credit: Amber Hulme & Dylan 4 Photography (via WLMC)The daredevils abseiled down the 26-storey One Regent Tower in Castlefield to raise funds for We Love MCR Charity / Credit: WLMC
Although the charity only set a fundraising target of £30,000 for the challenge, this has already been smashed, with a whopping £36,000 raised by the daredevils’ impressive efforts, and the total continuing to rise by the day.
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Just like all the other events in the 2022 ‘Challenge Event Series’, We Love MCR Charity says that all the money raised from the abseil will go directly towards its two flagship funds – the Stronger Communities Fund and Manchester’s Rising Stars Fund, which are all about empowering local community projects, and helping to change the lives of ambitious, but sadly disadvantaged, young Mancunians.
You can find out more about We Love MCR Charity and its different funds on its website here, and follow the charity on Twitter for news on the next challenge in 2023.
Featured Image – Dylan 4 Photography (via WLMC)
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‘The average cost of a pint’ in the UK by region, according to the latest data
Danny Jones
Does it feel like pints keep getting more and more expensive almost every week at this point? Yes. Yes, it does, and while you can’t expect a city as big as Manchester to be one of the cheapest places to get one in the UK, we do often wonder how it compares to other parts of the country.
Well, as it happens, someone has recently crunched the numbers for us across the nation, breaking down which regions pay the most and the least for their pints.
The data has been examined by business management consultancy firm, CGA Strategy, using artificial intelligence and information from the latest Retail Price Index figures to find out what the ‘average cost of a pint’ is down south, up North and everywhere in between.
While the latest statistics provided by the group aren’t granular enough to educate us on Greater Manchester’s pint game exactly, we can show you how our particular geographic region is looking on the leaderboard at the moment.
That’s right, we Mancunians and the rest of the North West are technically joint mid-table when it comes to the lowest average cost of a pint, sharing the places from 3rd to 8th – according to CGA, anyway.
Powered by consumer intelligence company, NIQ (NielsenIQ) – who also use AI and the latest technology to deliver their insights – we can accept it might seem like it’s been a while since you’ve paid that little for a pint, especially in the city centre, but these are the stats they have published.
Don’t shoot the messenger, as they say; unless, of course, they’re trying to rob you blind for a bev. Fortunately, we’ve turned bargain hunting at Manchester bars into a sport at this point.
We might not boast the lowest ‘average’ pint cost in the UK, but we still have some bloody good places to keep drinking affordable.
London tops the charts (pretends to be shocked)
While some of you may have scratched your eyes at the supposed average pint prices here in the North West, it won’t surprise any of you to see that London leads the way when it came to the most expensive pint when it came to average cost in the UK.
To be honest, £5.44 doesn’t just sound cheap but virtually unheard of these days.
CGA has it that the average cost of a beer in the British capital is actually down 15p from its price last September, but as we all know, paying upwards of £7 for a pint down that end of the country is pretty much par for the course the closer you get to London.
Yet more reason you can be glad you live around here, eh? And in case you thought you were leaving this article with very little, think again…
Benson Boone has announced a headline gig in Manchester – and it’s a big one
Danny Jones
American pop sensation and unrivalled king of unnecessary front flips, Benson Boone, has just announced his first-ever headline Manchester arena gig as part of a new arena tour.
The solo artist and acrobatic chart-topper has seen a meteoric rise in the US and, as is usually the case across the Atlantic, he’s become increasingly popular over here too.
Benson may have performed here in Manchester before as part of the 2024 MTV EMAs and for a small show at The Deaf Institute, but now big fans have the added Boone of getting to watch a standalone show at one of Europe’s leading indoor entertainment venues.
Announced on Friday, 30 May, the 22-year-old will be making his way across the pond from Washington for a limited run of UK concerts, with a date at Co-op Live arena being one of just five dates.
Extending his ‘American Heart Tour’ ahead of the release of his eponymous sophomore record, with this autumn leg, Co-op Live will mark his individual visit to 0161.
The Grammy-nominated artist has earned several nods of recognition already for his first album, Fireworks & Rollerblades, which was released just last spring.
He has been described as among the current trend of male singers who fit into the American Idol and ‘Voice audition pop’ genre (a term recently coined online), along with the likes of Teddy Swims, Shawn Mendes, Alex Warren and others.
Regardless of the slightly tongue-in-cheek term, he’s become a huge hit around the world and landing him is still a big coup for the venue that has already welcomed similarly massive pop contemporaries like Swims, Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Rodrigo and more.
In case you’re wondering just how big a deal he is over in the States, even this early in his career, his domestic headline dates sold out in seconds, quite literally…
The last time he visited Co-op Live was to perform at the most recent MTV EMAs
Benson Boone is coming to Manchester on Monday, 27 October and will be playing just two other British venues: The O2 in London (two nights) and the Utilita Arena in Birmingham.
Safe to say you don’t want to miss this one if you like soaring vocals and lots of flipping.
General admission tickets go live at 10am on Thursday, 5 June, but Co-op Members can gain access via the arena’s official pre-sale window from the same time on Tuesday (3 Jun).
Emily Sergeant -
19th July 2022 
