Just finished the Veterans Boxing class now and its class, going real really well.
So, this started probably about two years ago really the process. An organisation called Maverick Star Trust got in touch with me and asked would I like to be involved in running a veterans boxing club out of Elite Gym in Halliwell. To be honest, at the time, I wasn't ready! I’d just left the army myself and spent all this time trying to get away from soldiers and I didn’t really want to be around crusty old veterans and so I declined. About 8 or 9 months or so after that. I thought you know what, I really need something to be involved in, in regard to veterans or serving soldiers again just for my own peace of mind and so I approached them again and asked if the offer was still there and it was, so we started.
We’ve been going about 10 months now and have 39-40 members that are involved. And, and the impact that that's had over the last 10 months, I think, is un-measurable, you can't really put a price on it, it's been brilliant. And that's testament to organisations like Maverick Star Trust and Elite Gym but also a guy called Liam Gaynor, that gives up pretty much every, has given up every Thursday night apart from one in the last 10 months to get us training and to put is through our paces.
Now it's hard work, I'm not gonna pull any punches, it's a graft and see sometimes, I finish work and I think, I can't be arsed with this, so I start to think of excuses of why I shouldn't go, but I go anyway. And I go because it feels like a responsibility to me now. I started it, I’m heading it, I’m running it. And so, I go every week and see, to be honest, see once I’ve done it, I feel amazing. It’s brilliant what's going on! I love it.
So, it's kept going and I’ve been helped out, don't get me wrong, it hasn't just been me running this myself. I've had funding and I have had help from Elite Gym and I've had funding and help again from Maverick Star Trust. Pheniks Division have funded a whack of sessions. The Bolton Wanderers Remembrance Group are brilliant, the lads did a whip round and raffled off some signed gear to get us a few quid. The Spearhead Foundation, a Veterans charity have all jumped in and the Veterans Army have jumped in. And if I missed anybody, I apologise, this is all off the cuff.
Why do we do we do it? We do it for the boxing, the lads that come do like boxing. And are we any good? Probably not. But it's not about the boxing, really, it's about building a social and support network for serving soldiers and ex armed forces in the Bolton area. And that's exactly what we've done. You know, there's lads that have come up there and been a couple of weeks in realised - I'm not as half as fit as it should be -and so they've put down the beer and they've lifted up a dumbbell and they've got themselves back on the treadmill. And they've joined gyms, they’ve joined gyms together, they go to the gym together, they go to social events together. We've all been the boxing stuff quite a few times over the last 10 months, and we've gone and watched the lads fight. Christmas, there were lads spent Christmas together. There's a guy that comes and he never spoke to a single soldier for 24 years, he left the army and never spoken and never engaged with a single soldier for 24 years until he until he went to a boxing. Now, 24 years is a long time! I served 24 years, so he was mooching about, doing whatever he does, not speak to anybody for the whole time that I was in the army and here he is, he comes. Even when he's injured, even when lads are injured, they still come up, they come up for the engagement, they help out, they do the pad work or they'll help us with getting some videos or taking some pictures or whatever, whatever they need to do to get them off their arses of their couches and get them get them doing something with like-minded people who have similar lived experiences. And I think that's really, really important.
And now it's gonna keep going, as I said, and I am going to keep it going as well for me because it's helped me massively you know, it's a hard owd shift leaving the Army, being around soldiers all the time and then – not! You know, so, for me, it keeps me on the straight and narrow. It gives me a purpose as well. It gives me a reason to get off my couch and go and train and I think that's important, for my own physical and mental fitness and robustness, I think that's really important.
Now, believe it or not, some of the some of us are getting pretty good. You know, it's, it's not just we go up there and rake about, we train hard, but you train as hard as you want, you know, your level of fitness or your level of ability doesn't matter. As long as you've served the day in the army, or navy or Air Force or whatever, whatever it is, you come, get yourself up there, Thursday nights, 7pm – 8pm. And, and trust me, once you've been a couple of times, you won't want to leave, its class.