“Stay wom or thal end up wit mange” - Wiganer Darren helping hospice with virus warnings in dialect

Darren Wood, from Aspull, has been supporting Wigan and Leigh Hospice with a light-hearted parody of the Government’s slogans on how to reduce transmission of the coronavirus.

Instead of the phrases about staying at home and saving lives which have become so familiar from press conferences and announcements, Darren’s bumper stickers bear the Wigan dialect message: “Stay wom or thal end up wit mange”.

In the space of around a month Darren has raised more than £450 for the Hindley-based hospice, which he chose as a charity to support because of the care they gave to his mum Brenda Wood.

The fund-raiser started when Darren spotted the dialect message online and immediately thought it would be popular with local residents.

Darren, 52, said: “I just saw a picture on Facebook and shared a screenshot of it. I then printed a few off and put a picture of that on social media. By the time I got home I had orders for about 50.

“We’ve raised about £470 so far so it’s looking good.

“I’ve got time on my hands at the moment. I work putting fruit machines, pool tables and jukeboxes in pubs so when they shut I basically had no work, so I thought I would do this.

“The stickers aren’t everybody’s cup of tea but a lot of people do like them.

“My mum was only 59 when she died, she had motor neurone disease. The hospice looked after her and they were brilliant with her.

“I try to support the hospice each year by doing things like going to the charity ball or printing T-shirts for the bike ride, but this year the shops are shut and the events aren’t running.

“Initially we were going to split it half and half between the NHS and hospice but there’s a lot of awareness of the NHS at presents so we decided we would just do it for the hospice.”

Darren has been sending orders of the stickers around the borough and has even sent some much further afield, to friends in Canada and Australia.

He says he will continue printing and selling them for the hospice as long as there is demand during the pandemic.

A couple of shops have agreed to help him sell the stickers, which are £1 each.

Anyone wanting to buy a sticker can pick them up from AA Mopeds on Beech Hill Avenue or Fir Tree Angling Centre on Orrell Road in Pemberton.