03 Dec 2019
This year Tom won the Westminster Active Coach Award 2019. He is truly an Active Coach - football manager, boxing coach, fitness instructor and all-round inspiration to so many young people. Tom joined St Andrew's Club as a boy, volunteered and became a youth worker, benefiting from the training and opportunities provided by the Club.
He runs boxing classes for girls on Monday and Wednesday nights, which he has built up to 20 members. Tom started working one to one with a girl of 16 who wanted to increase her fitness levels through boxing but didn’t have the confidence to join our main boxing session. She attended the sessions with Tom each week and began bringing a few friends with her.
By July the group of 5 young Muslim girls were attending boxing sessions twice weekly.
Since the summer, the group has grown to around 20 Muslim girls who for many reasons, but particularly culturally, their parents may be wary about letting them attend the youth club. The girls now not only attend the Club for boxing sessions but also engage in other activities that are part of Club life - for example our weekly cookery sessions.
Tom's boxing group played a huge part in opening up the Club to this group of girls.
“The Club has really made a huge difference to my life - it helped me gain the qualifications and skills needed to work in the world of sport and fitness and I love helping the next generations of members understand the benefits of fit and active lifestyle".
