Why are we doing this?
Similar to Mark I have also lived in Northampton for all of my life, apart from moving to Southampton for 3 years to complete my BSc. I first came across Oddballs years ago when I was given pairs of the underwear they produce as a Christmas gift. Oddballs is a company which was set up in 2014 with the idea of designing extremely bright and loud underwear to promote testicular cancer and spread awareness of the disease. Subsequently to the success of the company, the charity The Oddballs Foundation was set up 2 years later with the sole aim of spread awareness of testicular cancer through university students.
I first came across the foundation in 2018 when my Dad is a bike ride with his mates as part of a cycling group called NumbNuts. They cycled from Twickenham, London to the Camp Nou, Barcelona in aid of The Oddballs Foundation. I shall being using some of the inspiration from my dad from his bike ride in 2018 to use when we complete ours in April. Although not as far it will be a different challenge for the same great cause.
Mark’s Story
I have lived most of my life in Northampton. I grew up in Kingsthorpe, so I was familiar with “The Cock Hotel” and needless to say, as a small boy I found that funny. Much, much later I discovered that there was a road in Woolaston called “Bell End”. I have to confess that it was my juvenile sense of humour that first got me thinking that those two locations would be great for a sponsored bike ride in aid of a testicular cancer charity.
Last summer, I read in a news release from the University that one of our Physiotherapy students was an ambassador for just such a charity, OddBalls. At that point, I knew that I had to do something about this and so I reached out to Elliot and asked if he would be interested in helping me organise that ride.
To be fair, I also believe strongly that working in collaboration with others to promote and protect the well-being of others is important, so it isn’t just that “little boy” that has brought me here, it’s a desire to do osmething positive to help others.