A decade ago, Mike Deveney became an accidental internet star when a photo of him sprawled on a Manchester street went viral. Now, the man at the centre of the viral image needs help.
It’s almost a decade since the iconic ‘Creation of Manchester’ picture was first published by the Manchester Evening News.
The man at the centre of this spectacular image of a Manchester night out, Mike Deveney, became an internet hit.
He was famously captured sprawled and reaching for his bottle of lager on Dantzic Street outside the Arndale centre, as police dealt with another man nearby. Mike, a dad from Newton Heath, had been for a night at Mambo’s cocktail bar near the Printworks on New Year’s Eve, 2015.
Among the features of the picture which made Mike a Mancunian hero was that the image showed he never spilled a drop, despite being supine and clearly the worse for wear.
A few days after the picture went viral, Mike told the M.E.N: “I’m not really bothered about the photo, I just felt a bit daft. I heard about it about two days later.”
He added: “I remember nothing at all (about being on the floor). I remember getting up about 20 minutes later and going home with (a friend). We had been at the Gluepot, the pub up in Newton Heath, and then we went to Mambo’s next to the Printworks.”
Lauded for its composition, the image was compared to various pieces of historic art, including Michelangelo’s The Creation of Adam. It became known as ‘The Creation of Manchester’.
The picture went all over the world and was even featured on TV in New Zealand and South Korea, among others.
Now, ten years on, the photographer who captured the image, Joel Goodman, has launched an appeal to help the star of that famous picture whose health has taken a hit.
Mike, now 57, lost his left leg to diabetes three years ago and since then he’s struggled to travel even short distances.
Soon after his operation, a friend gifted him an electric wheelchair but its battery life is said to be extremely limited which means he can’t travel very far from his home.
Mike said: “It’s terrible now. I can use my chair to get to the top of the road and back, but I can’t go to my friends’ in Miles Platting. I’m just stuck. A new chair would make a hell of a difference to me.”
Joel and journalist Roland Hughes, whose tweet helped the photo go viral on the first day of 2016, are appealing for support to get Mike a new electric wheelchair. They have launched a GoFundMe page for Mike.
A high-quality wheelchair will cost between £4,000 and £6,000, and a supplier has already been sourced. Any extra money generated will be shared equally between Diabetes UK and Cavell, a charity that supports nurses and midwives.
Joel, a renowned photographer who became famous for his pictures of Manchester’s nightlife, said: “This photograph would have been empty without Mike and, as its star, he has earned the affection of strangers from around the world. People in Mike’s position deserve a decent wheelchair to help them get about, so I really hope we can make that happen for him this Christmas.”
Roland said: “So many people around the world commented on the image of Mike and made him into something of a celebrity on that day 10 years ago, without knowing who he was. Just as he brought a smile to their faces, it would be nice if people could do the same for him at Christmas this year.”
