'We decided to write song after being bullied'

Adam Thistlethwaite and Baz Mills wanted to amplify their message

Two members of rock band Massive Wagons say they were inspired to launch an anti-bullying campaign following their own challenging experiences at school.

Baz Mills and Adam Thistlethwaite wrote the song "Forget The Haters" back in 2022.

Since then, the pair, from Lancashire, have visited multiple schools in a bid to bring home the message that "bullying is not ok".

"One of the reasons we wanted to do this is because we went through bulling at schools," said Baz.

"We both went through a rough time.

"I was targeted because I was small and looked really young, I was a really easy target.

"We feel kids at this age are absolutely the age to get this information to, to try and stop it going any further."

I went to watch the duo's latest assembly at Trumacar Community Primary School in Heysham as part of my 25in25 series - a chance to shine a spotlight on interesting people and places in our region.

And this week is no exception.

"It makes such a difference for children to see successful people talk honestly about their own experiences of bullying," said John Stark, the school's assistant head teacher.

"Any opportunity we can take to keep the message fresh in children's minds so they know exactly what to do in any instances when bullying does take place is vitally important."

Baz Mills and Adam Thistlethwaite, pictured with Kay, paid a visit to Trumacar Community Primary School

During the session Baz and Adam, who will be performing a couple of shows at Lancaster University this month, laughed and joked with the pupils.

They sang, Adam played his guitar, they even learnt a different kind of song, "chicken lava", which had the crowd go wild.

But they also took the time to talk to the children and engage in conversations around bullying.

One child opened up about her own experiences of being bullied.

"I was actually scared. She was 11 and I was 5, why would an eleven year old bully a five year old?" she said.

The real driving force for Adam and Baz was to ensure that children did not feel alone.

"If we can raise these issues with them, they can sit in the audience and say 'oh I'm not on my own, this isn't something I'm making it up and I can speak to someone because these guys have no agenda, they've just come to into my school and they understand what I am going through'," said Baz.

"If we can help one child then the last few years has been a success."

Next month Massive Wagons will perform a couple of shows at Lancaster University, one of which will be a matinee so that the school children can go along and see them in action.