Is 2022 the year you’re planning to take on a new challenge?
For many of us, the start of a new year often brings with it some motivation to make a few resolutions or set about achieving some goals we’ve been meaning to for a while, or, for the more daring among us, to get stuck into a challenge you’ve never tried before – but for those of us who aren’t really the adventurous type, who’s to say we can’t have a hand in picking out a daredevil task for others to try instead?
Well, that’s exactly what one of Manchester’s most iconic charities, We Love MCR Charity, had in mind when they asked us to give them a helping hand in deciding on its official fundraising challenge for 2022.
This new and yet-to-be-decided fundraising experience will form part of the ongoing ‘We Love MCR Charity Challenge Event Series’, which sees the charity put daredevil Mancunians’ mettle to the test.
The people over at We Love MCR Charity got the ball rolling by picking out a selection of four challenge ideas, and it was then left down to you – our loyal audience of over 200,000 Mancs on our Instagram – to pick which one would be chosen as the first instalment of the series this year by casting your votes on three head-to-head polls shared to our Instagram stories earlier this week.
The four challenge ideas battling it out were:
A Valentine’s Day dip in Debdale Park Reservoir
An abseil off a city centre high-rise tower
A skinny dip at dawn on the Autumn Equinox at Druridge Bay beach
A jump off a 10m diving board
.@TheMancUK are running a poll to help us choose our big mind-over-matter challenge in 2022! Check their Insta Story: https://t.co/mHwMwrHGkY to vote in the poll now!
It's currently between abseiling off a M'cr tower block, or a mass Skinny Dip in the sea.. Bucket list time?? 👀 pic.twitter.com/aUOlc11KHL
Round 1 of voting on Monday saw a Valentine’s Day dip in Debdale ReseRvoir go up against an abseil off a Manchester city centre tower block, with the abseil taking the win in a close call with 57% of the vote, all before round 2 got underway on Tuesday and saw a skinny dip at dawn on the Autumn Equinox at Druridge Bay beach clinch the win with 56% of the vote over a jump off a 10m diving board.
It was then left to the winners of the first two rounds to go head-to-head with each other – and it was eventually revealed, after hundreds of Mancunians got their votes in, that an abseil off a Manchester city centre tower block was the pick of the bunch in another close call, grabbing 54% of the vote.
But will it actually be crowned the winner? That’s down to We Love MCR Charity to make the final call in an announcement that’s coming next week.
The 2022 challenge comes after the success of the charity’s first – and probably the last – sponsored ‘firewalk’ event, which made history as 50 “brave soles” raised over £18,000 and counting by walking over 700-degree hot coals in St Peter’s Square in the heart of Manchester city centre last October.
Against a backdrop of Manchester’s Central Library and with a massive crowd cheering them on, each of the participants conquered their fears and completed what they previously thought was impossible.
The We Love MCR Charity sponsored ‘firewalk’ in October 2021 / Credit: We Love MCR Charity
We Love MCR Charity said that fundraising events like this are vital for its ongoing mission of supporting the city.
All sponsorship money raised by those undertaking the soon-to-be-announced 2022 challenge, or indeed any sponsored event across the city-region throughout the year, will go directly to We Love MCR Charity’s two current grant programmes – the ‘Manchester’s Rising Stars Fund’, and the ‘Stronger Communities Fund’ – which both support local communities and ambitious young Mancunians to overcome the barriers in their way and recover from the problems created by the COVID-19 pandemic.
If you fancy taking on a more personal challenge this year though, then did you know that the charity is also providing The Manc’s readers and followers with an exclusive opportunity to get £25-worth of entry fees to any sponsored event refunded if they choose to commit to raising some worthy funds in its name?
But for now, all that’s left to do is wait and see which challenge idea comes out on top for 2022.
“Well The Manc’s supporters really have helped to shape our thinking,” said Ged Carter – Development Manager at We Love MCR Charity.
“A ‘win’ for a breathtaking abseil, but who knew a seaside skinny dip would make it such a close-run poll? We’re excited to announce our Challenge plans very shortly.”
The man saving Manchester’s city pigeons from ‘stringfoot’
Daisy Jackson
A man has been patrolling the streets of Manchester to save our city’s pigeons from a condition known as ‘stringfoot’.
We all walk past hundreds of the birds every day in the city centre and they often get a bad rap – but one now-viral TikTok account is hoping to change all that.
In a series of heartwarming videos, one man has been heading out in his free time to treat pigeons afflicted with the dreaded ‘stringfoot’.
It’s a common sight now to see pigeons missing toes or walking around Manchester on deformed feet, which is often caused when the poor birds become tangled up in foreign matter.
Sometimes this is bits of string, plastic, thread, hair or a number of other things usually dropped by humans.
But with quick intervention from Tom, he can save these pigeons from a life of limping around town.
He’s been heading out armed with bags of seed to lure groups of pigeons close to him, before carefully catching the afflicted animal and carefully cutting away the material around its foot.
He uses things like stitch pickers to remove the thread, before cleaning up the pigeon’s foot with saline spray and antiseptic and gently releasing them again.
Tom said he started helping pigeons ‘sort of by accident’ when a bird with stringfoot came up to his flat.
In one month alone, he was able to catch and treat 15 pigeons, saving them from infection and injury.
And the account is getting lots of love and driving awareness for stringfoot and changing people’s perception of pigeons.
One person wrote on one of Tom’s videos: “We did pigeons so wrong as a society. Thanks for helping!”
Another said: “Pigeons Are NOT TRASH, they are a birds, who need help like cats, dogs and every living animals.”
And someone else commented: “These sort of videos make me cry because we’re so mean to pigeons, this might be the first time someone’s done something kind to them.”
You can find out more on how to help pigeons in your area HERE.
Benjamin Šeško quote resurfaces as Manchester United switch sole focus to pursuit of Slovenia star
Danny Jones
Slovenia striker Benjamin Šeško is now considered the primary transfer target for Manchester United for this summer window, as per multiple reports, and with the links only growing stronger as a quote relating to him and former RB Salzburg forward Erling Haaland has cropped back up.
Now on the books at the franchise club’s German counterpart in Leipzig, Šeško is one of the most highly sought-after talents in Europe at present, showing not only huge potential and a unique profile but already some impressive returns when it comes to goal contributions.
Although Haaland is ahead in terms of numbers, they do bear some resemblance in terms of height, physicality and speed for their size, and while they barely came across each other in the Red Bull setup – Šeško being loaned out to fellow Austrian side Liefering – they have drawn plenty of comparisons.
In fact, according to the 22-year-old himself, some feel he might just be “better” than the Norwegian phenomenon. At least that’s what some teammates and former colleagues are claimed to have said.
The retired defensive midfielder elaborated that Šeško was arguably the more natural all-round athlete, detailing that he has always been “smooth with the ball, very good technique, good finishing, and he jumps so high; very, very good with the head – it’s unbelievable.”
Aufhauser went on to add, however: “Erling was mentally a monster and better at the same age. This is the last five, 10 per cent that Benji has to get.”
It was also noted that while the emerging prospect may have just edged out the now fully-fledged Manchester City superstar in some departments at an early age, the big number nine always managed to find the back of the net more often.
He’s certainly kept that up in the years since then…
A 2022 quote from Šeško is all well and good, but Haaland has proved plenty of paper in just a few short years at the Etihad.
It’s also worth noting that the two attackers are not just pretty equally quick in a straight line, but both as tall as each other, clocking in at exactly 6ft 4in, with the Man City man barely three years his senior.
On the other hand, Šeško is known for keeping up multiple sports besides just football (basketball, in particular),
Besides their position, he told Amazon Prime Video Sport that he believes there is a lot of value not just in being sized up against the likes of Haaland but in trying to take cues from other pros in training, having also named a previous Red Devil himself as a key role model: one Zlatan Ibrahimović.
Most of this talk probably sounds all well and good to most United fans, but another key stumbling block in terms of a move for the budding young goalscorer is RB Leipzig’s supposed asking price, as the Bundesliga outfit is said to value him in the region of £70m.
Nevertheless, The Athletic now writes that INEOS and head coach Ruben Amorim are now solely focused on trying to sign Šeško, having previously narrowed it down to him and Premier League-proven Ollie Watkins.
Even if they get it done, the question is, will the confident forward suit English football as much as Watkins or dare we say Haaland – and furthermore, if they do, what might this mean for Manchester United’s current centre forwards?
Emily Sergeant -
13th January 2022 
