A woman from Heysham has knitted a doll of Tyson Fury in homage to what the Gypsy King does for Morecambe and now she hopes he might pose for a selfie beside it.
Val Sawczyn, 60, is quite the whiz when it comes to knitting and crocheting. Her needle skills have seen her knit a special Queen’s Jubilee set on top of a post box on Heysham Road which included a queen, a palace guard and a crown.
Now, she’s knitted an adorable Tyson Fury doll that stands on a Royal Mail post box on Oxcliffe Road. She says its an ode to all the wold champion boxer does for Morecambe.
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Val told LancsLive: “Tyson was my second one. I’m a big Tyson Fury fan and I thought that would be a nice way to do something. With me, its not really the boxing, I think its what he portrays, he’s so proud of living here, that’s what I like about him.”
Tyson Fury, who lives in Morecambe with wife Paris and their six children, often shares snaps with his 5.6million Instagram followers direct from the bay. Ahead of his winning fight with Dillian Whyte, he shared a thankful message with fans stood in front of the bay in what he described as his ‘homecoming’.
Val added: “He puts lots of good videos on his Instagram of the bay and he always seems to mention the bay so he’s really proud to live here.”
The Heysham mum said it took her ‘about a week’ to knit the entire doll and accompanying Gypsy King topper. After sharing her creation on Facebook, she quickly gathered over a thousand likes and hundreds of comments complimenting her work and thanking her for ‘brightening up’ the town.
“I’ve been really blown away by how many people have commented, I’m really grateful for that,” she said, “I didn’t do it for that, you know, but it is very nice.”
Now she hopes the Gypsy King himself might stop for a selfie and share it with his fans. Val said: “I hope he has seen it, I’d like him, if he could, to take a selfie with it.”
There’s still no sign of Tyson stopping beside his mini-me, but it will be his second creation put up in the seaside town in his honour. Last year, the Gypsy King was immortalised by Anthony Padgett who created the world’s first contemporary art sculpture in his honour, made out of drain pipes and located outside Jo & Lee’s By The Sea Cafe on Morecambe’s seafront.