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Man Leaves Supermarket With £75 Worth Of Sanitary Towels After Hearing About Period Poverty

Man Leaves Supermarket With £75 Worth Of Sanitary Towels After Hearing About Period Poverty

Jeff Williams decided to make the kind gesture after learning about period poverty from his partner.

Ciara Sheppard

Ciara Sheppard

A kind-hearted man is being dubbed 'Tampon Man' after heading to the supermarket for a pack of sausages and returning with a trolley full off sanitary products.

Jeff Williams, 55, had only gone into the shop for his breakfast, but came back with £75 worth of tampons and sanitary towels after hearing about 'period poverty'.

His partner Louise Cooke, 54, had come home from an upsetting day at work at a charity providing supported housing for those in need.

The mum-of-two told Jeff about one woman who asked the charity for tampons, explaining she'd been using a sock because she couldn't afford tampons.

In the shop after his brain wave, Jeff cleared the shelves of sanitary products, much to the bemusement of fellow shoppers.

Jeff Williams loaded up his trolley with sanitary products on a recent trip to Morrisons (
Kennedy News)

Posting his haul on Facebook, the IT manager from Belper, Derbyshire, quick racked up thousands of likes and nicknames such as 'The Tampon Man' and 'Sanitary Man'.

"My partner Louise came home last week really upset which she doesn't often do. She actually cried and she was just rolling through her day," he explained.

"And one of the things that really struck me was one of the women had said 'I need a sock' and that's what it was about - she was menstruating.

"She didn't have anything, she didn't have any money and she uses socks and a lot of the women do - or [use] whatever they've got around."

Jeff's wife Louise told him about period poverty at the charity she works for (
Kennedy News)

The following week, Jeff went to Morrisons and decided to head to the sanitary aisle.

"I ended up with a trolley stood there staring at the tampons with no idea which size or what kind. And I just piled a whole lot into the trolley with a packet of sausages.

"The looks I was getting! As I put the first pack in, a woman standing next to me with her grandma or someone gave me a look.

"I put another pack in and then I grabbed two handfuls and more and more.

"She said to the old lady 'are these the ones you normally have' and then they just stopped and stared at me, and then they just walked away. I was fine with it, I knew what I was doing, of course."

Jeff said he got some funny looks in the shop (
Kennedy News)

He added: "I got some milk and other bits and pieces and went to the checkout and there was a massive queue.

"So I was passed by a lot of people, all of them staring at me, staring at the trolley, staring at me and moving on.

"[People were] just puzzled. I look the way I look - a little bit different. And I've been a musician for years so I've got that weird look about [me] so I get stared at anyway often.

"But no one dared ask me if I was okay or if my partner was okay. I was thinking maybe they think I've got a woman bleeding to death at home or something.

"[Getting the funny looks] felt quite good actually. I found it quite amusing and I got quite a lot out of it wondering what people were thinking I was doing.

"The trolley was literally overflowing. I'd packed them all in at the bottom nice and tidy and then I'd thrown a load on top and they were the ones that kept falling off.

"The checkout lady was playing poker face, which I guess they're trained to do."

Jeff uploaded his £75 haul on to his kitchen table (
Kennedy News)

Later, Jeff got home and unloaded the products on to his kitchen table.

Since, his Facebook post has wracked up an incredible 53,000 shares and 9,100 likes.

"I'm absolutely astounded [at the reaction on Facebook]. It was quite a stressful weekend. I was going 'what is going on? It got 1000 shares and then 2000?," Jeff added.

"It's been rarely refreshing - the first few thousand comments were from women but then a few men started coming in and a lot of people have said that they're going to do the same.

"It's an invisible and very personal poverty problem so it's not really talked about and no one really considers it.

"I'm not professing to be some kind of expert in it but I know when Louise told me about it I was horrified and I'm in a position to do something for these women at least."

Jeff has been giving strangers Christmas gifts since his mother passed away in 2012 (
Kennedy News)

Jeff's mum Benice Bellamy died in 2012 and afterwards, the former musician would think about her around Christmas and feel sad he could no longer buy her a present.

In 2015, he said a 'light switched on' and he bought a stranger in need a present on his mother's behalf.

This year, Jeff dedicated his present to he women experience period poverty in his local area.

Jeff, you are great.

Featured Image Credit: Kennedy News

Topics: Life News, wellbeing, Life, Health