Spud Man mania gridlocks village

Social media star's charity fundraiser draws big crowds on his first visit to Wales

- Andrew Forgrave

FOR a few hours, an entire seaside village in Gwynedd ground to a standstill.

The sun was out, the beach looked welcoming, but that wasn't the reason: people had travelled for miles to queue for a jacket potato.

Places traded for a reported £5 as spud lovers waited their turn in Dinas Dinlle, near Caernarfon. It was worth it: a local mum wailed she was "gutted" when queue security told her the potatoes had run out.

All were there to meet a dad-of-nine with a pink mohawk - and to have the privilege of being served a jacket potato from his van.

Ben Newman, aka Spud Man, happens to be a TikTok sensation with a huge social media fanbase.

He was in Dinas Dinlle not to cultivate his following but to support a good cause.

As a former kidney dialysis patient at Royal Derby Hospital, he was keen to back a fundraising cause centered on a unique dialysis facility at Dinlle Caravan Park.

In 2008, the hospital's trust set up a dialysis treatment unit in a static caravan at the park.

The idea was to facilitate holidays for dialysis patients who would otherwise struggle to leave home for more than a day or two.

Health officials came up with the idea after discovering many of their patients visited Gwynedd on holiday. The scheme is massively popular - but the old static caravan is now showing its age.