On Sunday the 8th September, WBC Ambassador Scott Welch, and a number of other WBC representatives including David Walker, spent the day with Caris boxing club – the only club in the UK registered for the homeless.
Caris was created by Sam Hadfield in Finsbury, who works tirelessly to get people away from drug and alcohol abuse, and strives to get them into safe accommodation, vocations and education. Sam achieves his aims through the medium of boxing, and has to date shown an incredible success rate, not only in achieving these goals, but by allowing participants to have a common platform to make friends, increase their levels of self esteem, and consequently reduce depression.
Ex heavyweight British and Commonwealth champion Scott Welsh was amazed with the club and the fundamental issues it’s addressing in society. He extended an open invitation to the members to come and visit his club in Brighton, which is currently churning out some great boxers, including the likes of world heavyweight contender, Manuel Charr. Charr recently lost to Vitali Klitchko, but may get to redeem himself by fighting the winner of Haye versus Fury, in an Eliminator for the Championship of the World title.
If it wasn’t enough that the WBC had brought down Scott to have a chat and coach the guys at Caris, he proceeded, on behalf of World Boxing Cares (the charitable arm of the WBC), to hand out Cleto Reyes boxing equipment to head trainer Sam Hadfield. In addition, a substantial number of tracksuits, again sourced by the WBC and Planet Zero were given to the homeless participants.
Sam said ” I can’t thank Scott, the WBC and President Dr Jose Sulaiman enough for all they are doing. The WBC supported us from the very beginning as have the ABA.
The boxing world pulls together for very good genuine causes. It strikes a chord with many boxers who come from hard, tough backgrounds, especially youngsters who have found themselves on the streets at one time or another.”
Well done WBC, and great to see Scott Welsh taking time out of his busy routine to give up his Sunday and help out in the local community. A big thanks also to Mick Lowe for his excellent photos.