The founder of an amateur football club aimed at overweight men is calling for more teams to be set up in the area.

Councillor Carl 'Wammo' Walmsley set up Tubby FC in July last year and has been overwhelmed by the sheer number of members and the dedication shown by them.

"What was just an idea to get a few overweight lads meeting up and playing the beautiful game springboarded into a huge, successful project," said Wammo.

"The lads are now meeting up twice weekly to train and play regular in-house and non-competitive friendlies."

The team have some upcoming away games playing similar mental health and overweight teams but are having to travel as far as Scotland to find them.

Wammo said: "I would love to see more local teams. It's one of my proudest achievements to date seeing how much it has helped these lads out.

"We now have more than 60 lads and are unfortunately having to turn some away as we quite simply can't cope with the numbers and keep everyone happy at the same time. We know there is plenty of demand to make more teams in our own county.

"To start with I would personally love to see teams in all the county's towns - Egremont, Cleator Moor and Millom - that we can make a small league of four up and get the Cumberland FA involved.

"So on that I warmly invite anybody who thinks they can make it happen to get in touch with us and we will help as much as we can."

Tubby FC now boasts facilities at St Benedict's RU, a dedicated coaching team, regular funders, a kit and training gear and even its own Tubby media team. A weight loss programme and mental health initiative are also in the pipeline.

Wammo added: "It's been an amazing success and I would love to see this grow and grow around the county so please get in touch with is via our Facebook page."

Tubby FC travel to Preston this Sunday to play Headstrong FC.