A pub landlord, who has raised more than £93,000 for the NHS by creating and running a virtual pub quiz, has said how “overwhelming” the response has been since he started.
Jay Flynn, a former pub landlord from Darwen, Lancashire, started doing the quiz on Facebook and YouTube every Thursday, in order to “lift a few local people’s spirits” after the UK went into a nationwide lockdown. Flynn, who previously used to run pub quizzes, now writes a new set of questions every week for his Thursday pub quiz which he runs through YouTube. Flynn always ensures, however, that he stops the event for the Clap for Carers tribute at 8pm.
Flynn said:
"Thursday night was quiz night, whether I was running them or participating,"
Pubs all over Britain were forced to close ahead of the UK-wide coronavirus lockdown. Thus, Flynn decided that he was going to do his first digital pub quiz in order to raise money, which attracted a greater online audience than he expected. Originally Flynn had planned a small online quiz, which accidently went viral after he made the Facebook event public and publicised it.
Then, as the virtual pub quiz grew Flynn began getting used to having large audiences saying: "There are people crying out for me to be recognised with awards and all sorts - I'm just an idiot who asks questions in front of a camera".
Those who are taking part in the quiz then submit their scores via social media and then can choose whether to make an optional donation to the NHS or another other chosen charity.
"I know people are struggling at this time, people can't afford necessarily to think of charities at the moment... if you feel you can donate, great."
The most recent quiz, which was held on Flynn’s 38th Birthday, reached up to 150,000 people.
Flynn is now planning on running a charity-focused quiz on Saturday, with a montage in order to thank key workers currently working in the pandemic, with Flynn wanting to fundraise for those “on the front line”.
To follow The Virtual Pub Quiz click here.
