Skip to content

Pants-on-head man raises a few nicker for charity

Martin Heath/BBC Mark Robson with short grey hair and a blue raincoat wearing white pants on his head with a green Christians Against Poverty logo. He is looking at shops to his right. There are shops on both sides of a pedestrian street and some shoppers are walking down it.Martin Heath/BBC
Mark Robson could not go undercover and had to wear his pants with pride

A man has been using his briefs for debt relief by wearing them on his head for a day.

Martial arts instructor Mark Robson wore his unusual attire around Daventry, Northamptonshire to raise funds for Christians Against Poverty.

He also took his Taekwondo classes with the non-regulation headwear.

He said he was hoping to raise hundreds of pounds and described the experience as "a bit embarrassing but for a good cause".

Martin Heath/BBC Mark Robson, with short grey hair and white pants on his head, looks at Oliver Hall, with long hair which is dark on one side and light on the other. Oliver is wearing a black T-shirt and is standing behind a till. She is in front of blackboards showing some of the items on sale in the shop.Martin Heath/BBC
Oliver Hall, serving in a health food shop, said: "I think it's beautiful, I think more people should walk around with their underpants on their head"

Mr Robson set off on a gentle stroll around the town, so did not pant too much.

He thought some people found him hilarious, some were confused and others did not even notice.

The idea came from the debt counsellor at Christians Against Poverty in Rugby, the nearest branch to Daventry.

Martin Heath/BBC Woman with medium length brown hair and glasses wearing a green raincoat and carrying a cream-coloured handbag laughs at Mark Robson wearing his pants on his head in a shopping street. There is a shop with blue doors behind him.Martin Heath/BBC
Some shoppers were taken aback by the headgear, but many donated

He said: "It's a little bit embarrassing wandering around town with pants on your head but you've just got to take it as it is and just go, 'well, it's for a very good cause'.

"Looking an idiot beats running for 26 miles!"

He added the underwear was "a great conversation opener, a good ice breaker".

Martin Heath/BBC Tom Welch with short dark hair wearing a white and brown checked shirt with one hand over his nose and the other pointing at Mark Robson with white pants on his head with a green Christians Against Poverty logo. They are standing in a bookshop.Martin Heath/BBC
Bookshop worker Tom Welch thought the pants were "very practical at this time of year" and the "second-best thing to a knitted hat"

After a couple of briefs from the charity, several other people have put up a united Y-front and donned the drawers in Rugby for Christians Against Poverty.

Explaining why he wanted to support its work, Mr Robson said: "So many people these days have managed to spiral themselves into unmanageable debt and they want to help people work their way out of that debt."

Martin Heath/BBC Michael Okundaye with short dark hair wearing dark grey shirt and taking a cake from a clear display cabinet, watched by Mark Robson with white pants on his head in a bakery.Martin Heath/BBC
Michael Okundaye said the pants were "a bit strange" and he was unlikely to follow Mr Robson's example

Mr Robson said his headgear had prompted several pant jokes, including: "Why is it OK for a Taekwondo instructor to wear Y-fronts on his head?

"Because they don't care much for boxers!"

That joke is, as they say, absolute pants.

Follow Northamptonshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.

More on this story
Related internet links