CHARLOTTE, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 30, 2023--

The Rugby World Cup and new series of Strictly Come Dancing are both set to kick off soon – and one man who knows just how hard both of them are is Ugo Monye. “Strictly is gruelling,” says the former rugby pro-turned-pundit, who played with Harlequins and England before taking part in Strictly in 2021. “At times you’re training for 12 hours a day. So, you could go for a period of three or four days where all you do is wake up, go to the studio, go to sleep, wake up, go to the studio, go to bed.” He recalls recently telling his friend, comedian Eddie Kadi, all about this, the night before he was announced as a contestant for this year’s show. And because of the demanding schedule, taking care of yourself becomes a top priority. “You try and eat right, try and get as much sleep as possible. The biggest initial challenge everyone will find is their feet, because they wouldn’t have been used to dancing for 11 hours a day,” adds Monye, 40, who was partnered with Oti Mabuse on the show. Trading his rugby boots for ballroom shoes came with some challenges, but he still completed five weeks on the show (Monye and Mabuse finished in 11th place that year). “I remember when I did the quickstep, I had my Apple Watch on, which showed that I danced over 45km in five days,” he recalls. “I remember the first week or two, just the nervousness of rolling out of bed and putting my feet on the carpet because you didn’t know how they would feel.” Having played such a physically demanding sport for 13 years at pro level, Monye was not in bad shape. But Strictly was another “type of pressure”. “When I retired in 2015, I never thought that I’d be dancing, dressed in a low cut, electric pink, short sleeve shirt doing the samba. It’s something I’m actually really proud of,” he adds happily. Like lots of people, Monye, who has two daughters – Phoenix Lilly, six, and Ruby, three, with his ex-wife Lucy – recalls how his approach to self-care has evolved over the years. “Going back to the early 2000s, I was living the dream, right? I was 18 and I got a professional contract playing for my boyhood club, and within a year I travelled the world playing for England,” he says. “I was all, what mental health? I’m flying, right?” Things shifted with time, however, and he began to see the importance of having a proactive approach to maintaining his mental wellbeing. “I remember speaking to a friend, who is really interested in mental health, [about how] people often seek [mental health support] after something bad or traumatic has happened to a point where they actually need it. But it’s more like how you have to go and get an MOT on your car and service it,” he explains. “I think towards the end of my career, I became more aware of it. I have now definitely paid more attention to it and I absolutely love psychology, so I love understanding how the mind works.” Since his retirement, Monye – who has teamed up with Samsung ahead of the World Cup, which starts on September 8 – he has been busy being a dad, alongside jumping into a vibrant broadcast career. Having daughters made him reflect on his own upbringing too – going from being raised by a single mother on a London council estate, to a rural boarding school in Hampshire where he had his education funded (Monye secured a sports scholarship when he was 13). He attributes a lot of his success to his schooling. “I think the person I am now was born at age 13. Everything I was surrounded by was slightly different in that world. It was where I first was introduced to rugby, which then has quite clearly gone on to shape my career, the pathway that I have now, but also my personality. “I think I rely upon myself, I back myself. I had to depend on myself and try and get things done,” he reflects. “I think my personality traits, good and bad, were all developed at boarding school.” Having spent large chunks of his childhood away from family, how does he manage his own work-life balance as a parent now? “How do you manage your work-life balance? Well, you stand in the middle of the park taking a phone call,” he jokes (Monye is in the playground with his girls while we talk). “The time I have with them is absolute quality. For the World Cup, I’m going out for like three or four stints. I’d love them to be able to come out, but with school, it is a bit more difficult. “But I have said to Phoenix already that next year is the Olympics, and she loves gymnastics, so she’s going to be getting on the Eurostar with me. She is watching a lot of clips of Simone Biles at the moment on YouTube and she’s obsessed.” He wants to see his daughters inspired by brilliant women. “I love to watch sports with my daughters,” says Monye. “And we loved watching the Women’s World Cup. I had to get them to come and watch incredible women just do it.” Ugo Monye has teamed up with Samsung ahead of the world’s biggest rugby tournament (samsung.com/uk/big-screen-tv) Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Why do we crave brand new clothes and how can we resist the urge to buy them? How can I improve my teenager’s low mood? Drinking alcohol does not make people look more attractive, study suggests

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Shopping for second-hand fashion could prevent carbon emissions equivalent to those produced by 261,000 flights to Greece, analysis from Oxfam suggests. The charity has launched its annual campaign Second Hand September, which encourages people to shop second-hand and donate what they no longer need or wear for 30 days from Friday. Releasing new research to mark the annual campaign, Oxfam said that only 10 per cent of wardrobe contents are second-hand. The charity cited figures from the Waste and Resources Action Programme, which estimates that the average adult wardrobe consists of 118 items. Oxfam said that if half of those items were bought second-hand, it would prevent 12.5 billion kilograms of carbon dioxide created by manufacturing new clothes from entering the atmosphere – equivalent to that produced by 261,000 flights from London Heathrow to Athens. It also said that if each adult in the UK donated all the clothes they have not worn in the past year to charity shops, it could remove the need for 4.9 billion kilograms of carbon emissions – equivalent to flying a plane around the world more than 6,600 times. The findings come amid increasing awareness of the negative effects of the fashion industry, which accounts for 10 per cent of global carbon emissions, according to the UN, which is more than international aviation and shipping combined. Money raised from Oxfam fashion goes towards Oxfam’s work with partners fighting poverty and the impact of the climate emergency around the world. The charity said an increasing number of shoppers, activists and people within the fashion industry have been shopping second-hand since the first Second Hand September campaign in 2019. Bay Garnett, stylist, sustainable fashion advocate and senior fashion adviser at Oxfam, said second-hand clothes have become an emerging style and agreed it has become “cool to care”. “I’ve seen a huge change. Kids love to do it now and what’s brilliant is that second-hand now has become a trend. It’s a genuine tipping point for it being a style choice,” she told the PA news agency. “I also think the big difference now is that it’s seen as a point of activism and originality. Kids are proud that they’re going to second-hand because it shows independence and a form of activism and strong decisions.” Ms Garnett, who came up with the idea to do visual campaigns for Second Hand September, collaborating with stars such as Sienna Miller and Felicity Jones, added that second-hand shopping is also an “antidote to the culture of newness, of Instagram and disposability”. She added: “When you shop at second-hand shops, the money that you’re spending raises crucial funds for Oxfam’s work fighting poverty and the impact of the climate emergency. That’s a fantastic place to put your money. “That’s pretty powerful in itself – the fact that it’s not going to make people richer but it’s going to help the people who are poor or the most disenfranchised by this whole situation.” Lorna Fallon, Oxfam’s retail director, said: “As a major emitter of greenhouse gas, much of the fashion industry as it stands is a threat to people and planet.” She added: “Shopping this way sends a clear message to the fashion industry that consumers want, and expect, things to change.” Miquita Oliver, Oxfam’s second-hand clothes ambassador, said: “It’s timely that we’re talking about second-hand clothes and living in a more sustainable way, as awareness of the environmental impact of our shopping choices is growing. “Today’s research from Oxfam shows that something as simple as buying clothes second-hand, and donating what we don’t wear any more, can help change the world for the better. It’s as simple as that.” Read More Woman adopts husband’s ex-wife’s son after growing up in foster care herself Florence Pugh says backlash to her nipple-bearing dress shows people are ‘terrified of the human body’ Woman says she started to wear ‘terrible wigs’ after her job banned her pink hair

Switching half our clothes in each of our wardrobes to pre-loved could prevent carbon emissions equivalent to those produced by 261,000 flights from London to Greece, Oxfam have suggested. So what is the allure of buying brand new clothes, when we know it’s worse for the environment? Well, there’s a reason we refer to shopping as ‘retail therapy’. Whether it’s a going-out top grabbed on your lunch break or a designer bag you’ve had your eye on for months, fashion acquisitions in particular have the power to lift your mood, thanks to the chemical dopamine. “Dopamine is known as the reward agent,” said cognitive psychologist and business consultant Dr Carolyn Mair, author of The Psychology of Fashion. “We produce more dopamine when we’re on the hunt for something that’s going to give us a positive outcome or make the situation we’re in at the moment more easy to bear. “It can become an addiction, certainly, because the same neurotransmitters and same behaviours are involved.” And buying an on-trend outfit provides more of a thrill than loading up a supermarket trolley because it satisfies our desire to fit in. “It’s a fundamental psychological drive that we want to belong to communities – part of the way we do that is through the way we dress,” said Mair – who is working with Oxfam for the launch of its Second Hand September campaign – but it’s a double-edged sword. “Fashion can do wonders for us in terms of highlighting or concealing parts of our bodies that we love or don’t love so much,” Mair continued. “But it can also be quite damaging when we feel that we have to join in with other people’s ideas about what’s fashionable.” Peer pressure can have a powerful effect, as can the boredom. “We get bored with what we’ve got, and we’re also very much influenced by fashion trends, celebrities, social media and so on,” said Mair. “There’s quite often a temptation to join in with those trends and be part of that… It can be quite difficult for people to resist that.” Even, that is, when we know that the fashion industry is hugely detrimental to the enviroment in terms of carbon emissions and unwanted garments going to landfill. “I think the huge majority of people already know [the environmental impact],” said Mair, and yet fast fashion brands continue to churn out millions of items a year and consumers lap them up. Instead of telling people to quit clothes shopping altogether, she said to ask ourselves: “How can we get the pleasure from fashion by not buying brand new, but by buying something else?” That’s why she encourages fashion fans to make more sustainable choices, starting with ‘shopping your wardrobe’. “You can make something you’ve already got feel new by upcycling it or changing it a little bit, if you’re creative. We can swap with friends, because then it’s ‘new to me’.” Hunting on sites like Vinted, eBay or Depop is a great way of “finding treasures so that’s giving us the dopamine hit and we’re saving money”, she added. If the proceeds are going to a good cause you’ll get an extra altruistic boost as welll. “We know from positive psychology that one of the best ways to feel good about ourselves is to do good for someone else,” said Mair. “Whenever we buy secondhand from a charity shop we know that our money is going towards doing good.” She’s also a big fan of rental sites like HURR Collective, Hire Street and By Rotation that offer premium pieces to hire for a fraction of their retail price. “Rental sites are great, particularly for special occasions when we think ‘I need to buy something new,’ because that’s the social norm,” she said. “Rental is a great way to keep an item of clothing in use for longer so it’s worn by more people and looked after.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live How can I improve my teenager’s low mood? Drinking alcohol does not make people look more attractive, study suggests Maya Jama and Stormzy: Can you make it work with an ex?

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