The so-called ‘Gimp Man of Essex’ is shopping in his latex body suit to ‘cheer people up’ and raise money for charity.

The anonymous bloke – who is from Essex and likes to wear gimp suits (that’s about all we know) – often dons his rubber, but decided to wear it to the shops for the first time recently – as if going to the supermarket wasn’t a surreal enough experience at the moment anyway.

But the gimp man got such a good reception on his first trip to Tesco that he has since completed a second shop for an elderly friend in his favourite suit.

He said: “I just want to put a smile on people’s faces, to raise a bit of money for charity and it is a bit of fun whilst feeding your exhibitionist streak.

“I’ve never gone into supermarkets, but I thought with everything going on I’d go in to try and cheer everyone up and if they don’t let me in that’d be the end of it really. But I had a brilliant reception, I got chatting to the woman in front me as I started queuing up and everyone started taking pictures.

“The staff were great to as obviously they have been really stressed, quite a few of them said ‘you have made coming to work today worthwhile’.

“I got to the checkout with no problems, everyone seemed to enjoy seeing me and a woman said to me I haven’t been paid for three weeks and this is the first time I have laughed in weeks.”

His exploits are part of a fundraiser for mental health charity Mind, though it’s worth noting that he quite likes doing it too.

While some put themselves through ordeals for charity, such as running a marathon with a fridge on their back, the gimp man ‘won’t make any bones’ about the fact he enjoys it – which is an unfortunate turn of phrase if you ask me.

He said: “I raise money charity, but I won’t make any bones about it wearing rubber feeds my exhibitionist streak, but I never thought I’d wear it in Tesco.

“Everyone needs to laugh where they can at the moment and I just hope the lockdown isn’t getting the better of people.”

And before you go thinking about it – no, gimp suits are not approved PPE.