Boxing champ joins anti-knife campaign

WORLD Heavyweight Champion Anthony Joshua has backed a Leicestershire knife-crime campaign urging young people to make the right choice.

Fighter Joshua, who has also won gold for Team GB in 2012, turned his back on years of criminal behaviour after he pleaded guilty to drug dealing in 2010.

From that point he stopped meddling in crime and now he’s urging others to do the same with a video for Leicestershire Police’s #LivesNotKnives campaign.

The champion asks young people in Leicestershire to make the right choice.

During the video, Joshua said: “You know who I am, where I have come from and what I am about.

“Make the right choices, stay focussed and live life to the fullest.

“Knives are taking lives and I want people to make the right choices. “Be wise. “Look after yourself.” Sergeant Mel Thomas, who arranged the recording of the video, said: “While carrying out some work for a local charity, I was speaking to a local promoter who was hosting an event with Anthony Joshua at the Athena in Leicester.

“Knife crime is a subject very close to the promoter’s heart and he was very keen to support the campaign so I worked with him and Anthony’s team to arrange the recording of the video.

“I see the terrible incidents that my colleagues on the frontline have to deal with as part of their job so I was willing to do anything I could to help”

For more information about the force’s #LivesNotKnives campaign and to see the video visit Leicestershire Police’s knife crime page.