Like so many small businesses, Plymouth face painter, hair braider and Glitter artist Cher was nearly put out of business during Covid, as such a close-contact enterprise became impossible during lockdown. But she refused to let seventeen years of hard work go down the drain because of the virus, so she retrained to become a fibre network engineer and used the income from that to expand her business when lockdown was finally lifted. That in turn has enabled her team of smile creators to announce that they will be the new sponsor of Seymour Youth Football Team Under 18s for the next three years.
Cher says: “Having the ability to encourage teens and their siblings away from their mobile phones and computers into sport and to using their imagination is close to my heart. As a parent and a face painter, to see kids with their heads looking down on phones all the time saddens me. Exercise is not just good for the body but for mental health and wellbeing. I see a parallel when we create a design on a child's face and watch them run off so excited to become that Spider-Man, princess, tiger, unicorn is priceless. To see that spark of imagination come to life is a beautiful thing, and that’s why we want to help and encourage local under 16s to get involved in sport, where they will learn important things like teamwork and creative footballing skills.”
Who knows, Cher's Funky Faces may have just helped the next Raheem Sterling, Fran Kirby or Harry Kane take their first steps to footballing stardom!
To celebrate their new sponsorship deal, Cher and her team went to meet the Seymour Youth U18s at the team’s home ground Victoria Park, Plymouth PL1 5NJ where they also painted footballs on all the team and joined in with the warm up exercises.
Team Funky Punky (Cher's Funky Faces)
















