Man to create giant GPS penis for mental health

A man is planning to run 75 miles (120 km) as he aims to create the largest GPS drawing of a penis on foot in 24 hours.

Terry Rosoman, 39, from south Wales, is raising funds and awareness for men's mental health, admitting that the shape has been designed to get people's attention.

"That's why it's a big manhood because, especially for the target demographic that I'm aiming at, men never grow up," he said of the route which will be around Bannau Brycheiniog, also known as the Brecon Beacons.

Mr Rosoman, who has previously faced mental health struggles, hopes his challenge will encourage men in similar situations to find "grand goals that are bigger than yourself".

"I don't want to offend anyone with the shape, but it was just to get their attention," he said.

His challenge aims to raise £5,000 for Movember, a charity focused on men's mental health, suicide, prostate and testicular cancer.

Mr Rosoman will start and end his run at Abergavenny railway station, in Monmouthshire, setting off at 17:00 GMT on Friday, and hopes to finish by the same time on Saturday.

"I'm starting at sunset, essentially to get that night shift out of the way first, because when the sun comes up you're rejuvenated," he said.

He is well versed in endurance challenges, having scaled Pen Y Fan 10 times in 24 hours, and ran a 50-mile ultra-marathon while carrying a rucksack full of weights, but said his run tracing the male genitals is the longest distance he has covered.

He was inspired to begin the challenges after wanting to transform his life following years of binge drinking, smoking, weight issues and taking recreational drugs.

Mr Rosoman said he was "in the worst physical and mental health condition" in 2013 and feared he might die from his unhealthy lifestyle, admitting he was "deeply, deeply unhappy".

"I realised that if I didn't turn my life around I'd perhaps no longer be here in the future, whether that was through health complications or getting to a point where you don't want to be here."

He then took up boxing, gave up smoking and drinking, and adopted a healthy diet.

"I completely turned my life around and I was in the happiest place I've been ever in my life," he said.

"I credit that to the challenge, and the purpose and meaning it gave me, but also the mental toughness to endure or make difficult decisions."

Mr Rosoman hopes his fundraising endeavours will inspire men to take on their own challenges.

"I just wanted to promote this message of challenges, essentially," he said.

"Ultimately, it's just about having aims, goals, but grand aims and grand goals that are bigger than yourself, that are more important than going to the pub, and it will give you that sort of purpose."

Additional reporting by PA Media