Organised by the 'Rochdale Charity Posties' group, the aim is to raise money for mental health charity Mind and to mark Mental Health Awareness Week which runs from May 10-16
Postal workers will be dressing up in fancy dress to deliver their rounds on Saturday in a bid to raise money for Mind, the mental health charity.
After dressing up last year, Royal Mail workers from across Rochdale, Greater Manchester will be donning costumes this Saturday, May 15.
Organised by the 'Rochdale Charity Posties' group, the aim is to raise money for mental health charity Mind and to mark Mental Health Awareness Week which runs from May 10-16.
Michael Stewart, a postman and spokesperson for 'Rochdale Charity Posties' says the group has organised several events throughout the week.
“We’ve been doing some little events all week really,” he said.
“We did a cake sale on Monday which raised some money. We invested that in some prizes and we’re doing a raffle now for the rest of the week.
“Then on Saturday posties are going to go out in fancy dress to try and raise a little bit of money that way.”
Michael added that he hopes there will be around 40 posties out and about in costumes on Saturday.
After dressing up as a priest last year, Michael says he will be going as Jesus this year - as the Popeye costume he ordered didn’t fit.
He said: “There’s going to be quite a few of them out and about. I think we’re going to get around 40 posties out and around Rochdale in fancy dress on Saturday.
“We did it last time and it was a really hot summer’s day and there was a lad in a gorilla outfit which was difficult to go all the way round in, he went as far as he could before he nearly collapsed with heat exhaustion.
“Last time we had where’s wally bananas, Pink Ladies - we had all sorts.”
Michael Stewart dressed as priest for last year's event.
Michael says the group wanted to raise money for Mind as they had lost two colleagues to suicide over the last ten years.
He said: “The union and Royal Mail are quite big on the Mental Health Awareness Week this week, so we decided we wanted to do something for the Mind charity which is quite a prominent organisation within Rochdale especially.
“The union are using this week to push their 'it’s good to talk' campaign and Royal Mail have ‘feeling first class’ which is like a helpline for anybody that needs to talk."
InYourArea is supporting Mental Health Awareness Week 10-16 May
Michael added that he had suffered with his mental health over last year, but had sought help from Royal Mail and his union.
“I’ve suffered over the last 12 months and have sought help from a few places, ‘feeling first class' being one of them,” he said.
“What we’re trying to do is heighten awareness of it so we can signpost people, just to try and remove the stigma really because especially with the Mail population we do find it difficult to talk or reach out at all.
“So we’re really keen to say, come forward, and we’ll signpost you to wherever you need to be signposted to - to get the help you need.”
You can support the posties by donating via the JustGiving page.