The man scrambling to find a spherical egg

1 January 2026

Alice CunninghamSuffolk

News image — Simon Balch was given a spherical egg by Jo Willis, but the egg sadly went mouldy and now he needs another

Simon Balch Simon Balch stands next to Jo Willis in a kitchen. In his open palm rests a spherical egg. Jo has both her hands resting slightly below Simon's. They are both looking at the camera and smiling. Simon has short dark hair, a beard, and wears glasses, a white shirt, blue tie, rucksack and has a small microphone attached to his shirt. Jo has long red hair, glasses, and wears a grey jumper with a dark T-shirt underneath. — Simon Balch was given a spherical egg by Jo Willis, but the egg sadly went mouldy and now he needs another

A man is scrambling to find a spherical egg that can be placed inside his bespoke spherical egg cup.

Simon Balch, 49, was inspired to make what he believed to be the first spherical egg cup after reading the story of Jo Willis and her "one in a billion" discovery in May.

Mrs Willis donated her egg to the cup maker, so they could auction them off together for Cancer Research UK, but it began to soil after she accidentally hard boiled it.

Mr Balch, who grew up in Hemingstone in Suffolk but now lives in Camden, north London, wants to continue with his mission and display the egg and cup at an egg festival in Hitchin, Hertfordshire.

He said it would "mean the world" to him if he could poach another spherical egg from somewhere.

Simon Balch A man holds a spherical egg between his thumb and index finger. Another person stands nearby with their hands in front of their stomach and fingers interlinked. — Other peculiarly shaped eggs have sold for hundreds of pounds before

Mr Balch said he discovered he had an eye for egg cup making, and has since set up social media profiles selling his designs alongside his egg delivery service and YouTube channel.

He thought Mrs Willis's story was cracking.

"As soon as I saw that, I knew I had to make Jo the world's first spherical egg cup to house the 'one in a billion' spherical egg."

Simon Balch A potter moulds and shapes clay into the shape of a chicken's foot. — The spherical egg cup will eventually look like a chicken's foot and will be plated in gold

He teamed up with a pottery company in Camden to design the spherical cup, which looks like an upside down chicken foot, and it will eventually be gold plated so that it can hold the egg.

Mr Balch was shell-shocked to find out Mrs Willis's egg had gone mouldy, which happened because she started to boil it before noticing its abnormal shape.

Simon Balch Simon Balch smiles at the camera while standing next to another man who holds an egg cup in the shape of a chicken's foot. Simon wears a white shirt and blue tie, while the other man has short curly hair and wears a grey jumper. — Mr Balch teamed up with Luke Hamel from a pottery company in Camden to create the spherical egg cup

Mr Balch is mainly appealing to those in the egg industry and has set himself a deadline of 21 March, to present the egg and cup at the egg festival at Lannock Farm near Hitchin, Hertfordshire.

"It would mean the world to me," he continued.

"I've never been committed to something more than this, it's going to happen."

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