A Southampton personal trainer paraded half-naked around the city on Friday afternoon, covered in body paint to raise awareness of a good cause.

James Seilo, 50, a fitness coach of 20 years walked from The Bulb mural in Southampton – with matching artwork painted on his body – to Westquay Shopping Centre, handing out flyers to raise awareness of an art exhibition next month, with some of the proceeds going to charity.

The artwork of 21 local artists will be displayed and available to purchase at a pop-up exhibition open to the public on the weekend beginning March 2.

James told the Echo: “It’s a unique pop-up exhibition, showcasing 21 local artists – all of whom are incredibly talented.

"We’ve got sculptors, oil painters, water colourists, we’ve got performance artwork too and art being projected onto the walls, it’s going to be an amazing exhibition.

“The Bulb is the biggest mural in the city, which is incredible, so it lends itself perfectly to an art exhibition.”

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Ten per cent of each sale at the event will go towards children’s charity George’s Rockstars.

Founder of the charity, Amy O’Shaughnessy, 39, told the Echo: “I founded George’s Rockstars in memory of my son George, who was diagnosed with leukaemia at 22 months old.

“He was a patient at Southampton Children’s Hospital for quite some time.

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“He had music therapy when he went to Bristol Children’s Hospital for a bone marrow transplant, and it was something they didn’t have in Southampton or any of the local hospitals.

“He passed away in 2019 and we set up the charity in memory of him, to bring music therapy to our local hospitals in Hampshire, of which there is now four, Southampton being one of them.”

The one-off art exhibition will be open from 1pm to 8pm on Saturday, March 2, and between 1pm and 6pm on Sunday, March 3.

There will be 270 people attending a private viewing of the artwork on Friday, March 1, available by invitation only.

Santosh Kumar, 48, who works for B2B Growth Hub, a sponsor of the event, joined James in advertising the exhibition, painted in body art.

He added: “We want to try and bring the local community together and bring the city’s culture to life.”