ON THE ROPES
I was on heroin and with wrong crowd. But this saved my life
BOXER SCOTT ON HOW CLUB RESCUED HIM
across the land, Paddy and his team fear a generation of vulnerable youngsters could be left on the scrapheap.
Brad Savage, 22, came to the Pat Benson Boxing Academy, named after Paddy’s champion boxer grandad, at the age 12. He is now on staff.
He says: “It’s a safe haven. I’ve had mates who have gone down the wrong path. If I hadn’t had boxing, who knows what would have happened? People come through here who have been involved with gangs. We’ve also had Syrian refugees. One guy had fled after his family was killed. He was here on his own and he’d have been so isolated without this.”
Paddy adds: “There are a lot of benefits to sport – a sense of identity, belonging, learning new skills. We had a young person from a gang crime area who went on to win titles. He said boxing saved him.” One regular who has benefited from a club-run mental health programme is recovering drug addict Scott Ashmore.
Scott, 33, has been clean since he came to the club in 2017. He says: “Sport has saved my life. I had a heroin addiction and was in with the wrong
BY LUKE CAMPBELL TEAM GB OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALLIST, LONDON 2012
gyms aren’t about creating future Olympians. They’re about creating futures and are the hub of the community. A place where people from all backgrounds, races and religion come together, train together and find crowd as a kid. If I’d had something like this, I’d have had positive role models. I was mentally in a bad place from 20 years of drug use.
My treatment
purpose together. I know boxing gyms have changed lives across the UK – from helping fight mental health issues to difficulties finding social acceptance.
With everything going on right now, and so many people facing their own battles, we need to get these clubs off their knees and help them keep fighting. centre brought me here. I couldn’t interact with people but now I can come here and it costs nothing. ”
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said: “Since London 2012 more people, including children, are participating regularly in sport than when the bid for the Games was won in 2005. We have been encouraging everyone to maintain daily exercise through the pandemic.”