Mark Challis

Northerner based in Brum for 40 years. Still using up space and oxygen

[Mark Challis @markchallis5]

@Glinner Sing if you're glad to be grey
Sing if you're happy that way

[Crazy Vibes @CrazyVibes_1]

He died on Christmas morning, and only then did the world discover the truth: he had been secretly giving away millions with one rule:

No one could ever know it was him.

December 25, 2016.
George Michael, one of the defining pop icons of the 1980s and 1990s, was found dead at age 53. The world mourned the voice behind Faith, Careless Whisper, and Freedom. Tributes flowed, celebrating his talent, his cultural impact, his brilliance.

But then, quietly, another story began to emerge.

Not about his concerts.
Not about his fame.
But about his kindness.

One by one, strangers stepped forward with memories that had never made headlines: stories of compassion, generosity, and life-changing gifts from a man who made them swear to silence.

A woman on Deal or No Deal
In 2008, a woman named Lynette Gillard appeared on the British game show. She spoke of her dream to become a mother but explained she couldn’t afford IVF. She lost the game and left heartbroken.

The next morning, £15,000 appeared in her bank account.
No signature.
No note.
Just the exact amount she needed.

Years later, after George Michael’s death, she learned the truth.

He had been watching the show.
He heard her story.
And he insisted she never know it was him.

She now has a child because a stranger chose love over credit.

The homeless shelter volunteer named “Paul”
A charity worker revealed that for years, a quiet man calling himself Paul volunteered during the holidays, serving meals, sweeping floors, listening to the stories of people everyone else ignored.

Nobody recognized him.
He avoided cameras.
He declined invitations.

It was George Michael, one of the richest musicians in Britain, spending Christmas with the homeless, asking for nothing in return.

The anonymous donations
Every Easter, £100,000 arrived in the accounts of children’s charities across the UK.
Anonymous.
Untraceable.
Predictable as sunrise.

Only after George’s death did the truth come out.

A woman once cried in a bar over debts she couldn’t pay. George, sitting quietly nearby, listened. Before leaving, he wrote a check for £25,000 and told the bartender:

“Give this to her after I’m gone. Don’t tell her who it’s from.”

She only learned the truth years later.

He paid strangers’ hospital bills.
Covered tuition for students on the edge of dropping out.
Funded HIV/AIDS programs for decades.
Supported families drowning in medical debt.
Sent money to people who’d lost loved ones.

Always in secret.
Always with the same rule:

If anyone finds out it’s me, I stop.

The nurses who cared for his mother
When George’s mother was dying of cancer, NHS nurses cared for her with extraordinary compassion. After her death, George held a private, free concert exclusively for the hospital’s nursing staff.

No press,no cameras, no publicity, Just gratitude.
Two lives, one truth for decades, George Michael lived two parallel lives. One was public: the superstar, the celebrity, the man endlessly dissected by tabloids for his private struggles.

The other was hidden: the man who walked quietly into the lives of strangers and lifted them back onto their feet.Why did he hide it?
Because George understood something most people don’t. Real generosity is invisible.
Real charity doesn’t need applause.
Real love asks for nothing.He didn’t want to brand his kindness.
He didn’t want headlines,He didn’t want attention.
He just wanted people to be okay.

When the truth finally surfaced after his death, financial records and testimonies revealed he had given away tens of millions over his lifetime, most of it anonymously.

The IVF mother, the homeless.the nurses,the bar stranger, the students.
The families who survived because he cared. All of them helped by a man the world thought it already knew.
The real Santa Claus
George Michael died on Christmas morning, a day he had spent for years giving quietly to people who needed hope.

[Mark Challis @markchallis5]

@SVG__Collection 12 Dreams of Dr Sardonicus by Spirit from 1970

[Mark Challis @markchallis5]

@WG_RumblePants @GregBrereton1 Australian team talk
bowlers; just be patient they'll get themselves out
Batters;just be patient the runs will come

[Historic Cricket Pictures @PictureSporting]

David Steele after being presented with the BBC Sports Personality of the Year trophy by Jim Laker in 1975. Steele was the first cricketer to win the award since Laker 19 years earlier #SPOTY

[TV Football 1968-92 @1968Tv]

Back in the late 1960s , ITVs Gerald Sinstadt interviewed a very young Scunthorpe United forward called Kevin Keegan.
I wonder if he ever made it in the game?

[lan Byrne MP @IanByrneMP]

I am fully behind & support @unitetheunion Taxi Drivers who I joined this week demanding the government adopt the Casey report’s recommendation that the ‘out of area’ licensing loophole is immediately closed.
This is a huge issue in Liverpool & needs urgent Government intervention.

[Mark Challis @markchallis5]

@JamesMelville Well maybe at club level but didn't quite replicate it for Scotland, I can't think of one player that stands out as the best

[Mark Challis @markchallis5]

@PaulEmbery Hi ñ

[Sonia Sodha @soniasodha]

I am really not sure how anyone could properly listen to the thoughtful evidence from the witness from the National Down's Syndrome Policy Group to the House of Lords Assisted Dying committee, and still think this bill is ethical.

[Progressive Misogyny @JustMisogyny]

A cross-dressing man has entered my professional sphere.

It took him all of 10 seconds to refer to himself as a woman, completely out of context.

It was a provocative act: he broke a professional boundary to see if it would be tolerated.

I'm so tired of these self-obsessed weirdos.

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

This 1974 letter from LEGO to parents was included on the packaging

[Mr. Athar🏏 @cricdrugs]

The bowler charges in. The ball smashes through the stumps once. Then again. And again. Each time John Small is not out. Because in 1775 the wicket had only two stumps. That duel gave birth to a third… and to cricket’s first great batsman.🪡🧵🧶
1/n

[Berlin Faustino @FaustinoBerlin]

@C_KMcIntosh I bid for a bad court thing

You mean a mistrial?

Yeah one of those

[Mark Challis @markchallis5]

@Johnnie20211 @unherd Arf Arf

[Mark Challis @markchallis5]

Warehouse worker accused of faking disability after being secretly filmed was unfairly dismissed, tribunal rules https://t.co/dFGGSGd4I0

[Simon Knott @SimoninSuffolk]

'Terry meets Julie
Waterloo Station
Every Friday night'

RIP.

📸 PR

[Mark Challis @markchallis5]

@salltweets A Freudian slip, perhaps?

[Creepy.org @creepydotorg]

Ozzy Osbourne decided to stop using acid while recording Black Sabbath’s Vol. 4. He said “I took 10 tabs of acid then went for a walk in a field. I ended up standing there talking to this horse for about an hour. In the end, the horse turned round and told me to fuck off. That was it for me.”