For LeeStock 2011, my girlfriend and I tried to think of an original way of raising money for the Willow Foundation.
After the success of my tattoo challenge for LeeStock 2010, I had set the bar quite high, so we really had a lot of thinking to do! A lot of our friends and family came up with different suggestions, for example a chilli eating competition, body waxing, body piercings to name a few.
The festival was getting nearer, and we were starting to worry, when my girlfriend came up with the wonderful idea of a live bug eating competition, which was to involve myself and her brother Roy battling through mini games, with the loser eating bugs. This was the one!! She tried to think of something truly disgusting, difficult to do and entertaining and of course something people would pay to see!! The plan was made.
With a week to go, our local pet shop Seedee’s kindly picked us the perfect selection of treats, which included waxworms, mealworms, brown crickets, locusts, morioworms and lobworms!! Everything was set until 3 days before the event when I had a phone call from Roy, he couldn’t make it!
I was alone, there was no hope, I couldn’t persuade anyone to do this with me. As I called Roy up in a desperate state, he suddenly reminded me of the person who had come up with this tasty idea in the first place! His sister, my delightful girlfriend Bekka Gifford! It was back on! What choice did she have? Later that same day, a call from Matt Keogh pushed this whole thing further forward when he said he would also have a go! This was a surprise as he was adamant just a few days before there would be no way he could ever even pick up most of these bugs!
Over the LeeStock weekend, the money was coming in fast. With the help of a couple of band members, we completed all of the challenges and raised a total of around £900! The challenge itself was pretty scary and not your usual Sunday roast but it was worth it, even if Matt and I were vomiting after each round whilst Bekka soldiered on without throwing up once!!
Hope you enjoy the video and look forward to seeing you all at LeeStock 2012!!
Ash Watts
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View some highlights from LeeStock 2012 below
