Child Friendly Warwickshire

Child Friendly Warwickshire is a priority programme of work from Warwickshire County Council to make the county the best place it can be for children to grow up and learn. Key to the success of Child Friendly Warwickshire is a community-powered Warwickshire: one where every business, organisation and individual is committed to creating a county where all children and young people - no matter their background - are safe, skilled, heard, healthy and happy. The recent Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games were a fantastic example of how communities can come together to inspire young people. Our ambition is to help create opportunities and lasting and positive change for young people, and the Games did just that!

On Wednesday 17 August, Child Friendly Warwickshire were privileged to attend the celebration event for Lewis Williams being held at The Riverside Glasshouse, in Jephson Gardens, Leamington Spa. Lewis has cemented his status as a local hero, having won a gold medal at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games on Sunday 7 August.

Born in Whitnash, 23 year old Lewis is a heavyweight boxer with a number of titles to his name. Inspired by the legacy of Warwick and Leamington boxing greats Randolph and Dick Turpin, Lewis himself has become an important part of Warwickshire’s sporting history. Speaking at the celebration event, Mayor Parminder Singh Birdi of Warwick Town Council commented, “Lewis’ achievement is obviously amazing, but Cleary’s Gym is the real star. It helps young people achieve their full potential and although it's in the middle of quite a derelict area, it's producing fantastic home-grown talent."

Mayor of Warwick, Parminder Singh Birdi, with Lewis Williams holding his gold medal, smiling at the cameras

Child Friendly Warwickshire got the chance to ask Lewis a few questions about the most prestigious win of his career to date, and how he feels about inspiring children and young people in Warwickshire to get involved in local sports.

Lewis started boxing at just nine years old, and said, “With the support of my dad, Bob, I swapped Scouts for sessions at the local boxing gym, and quickly realised boxing was more than just a hobby.”

He’s been surprised by the level of local support he’s received, commenting, “It’s crazy, going around shops now and everyone’s recognising me because I’ve been on the TV, and people have been at the Pump Rooms or Warwick town centre watching the fights, or at home, or they’ve gone to the NEC to watch it live. It was shocking, how many people are well into the boxing, even though we come from boxing history in Leamington. And of course, the big crowd that’s come here today. I’ve had great support in the build up to it [the Commonwealth Games], but it was afterwards that I’ve got this huge support – everyone was blowing up my phone, messaging me! The turnout tonight has been way bigger than I thought it would have been!”

Talking about the five areas of focus for Child Friendly Warwickshire, helping children and young people to be heard, safe, skilled, happy and healthy, Lewis hopes that his gold medal win will inspire local children and young people to get into sports like boxing: “I think it really pushes people in the right direction, I haven’t had time to do anything wrong. All I've done is trained and at Cleary’s gym and any of the other gyms I’ve trained at, you’re surrounded by positive people, positive role models. You're looking up to other people that are boxing in the gym. You think, you know, I want to do that. I want to be winning those sorts of fights and titles. So I was constantly chasing goals from a young age, and then, of course, that's just positivity, to grow and focus on your goals. Now here we are with this nice shiny medal!”

It meant a lot to Lewis to win in his home country, and actually in his home county, as he explained, “I was very lucky to have it so close to home, and have this big support both from Birmingham and Leamington. It’s going all the way back to Australia next, so I’ve hit the jackpot.”

Child Friendly Warwickshire aims to support children and young people to be happy, healthy and skilled, which are all things that can be achieved through involvement in sport. Lewis said that young people should be, “Looking for role models, following after people and [finding people] that will point you in the right direction to improve your fitness and health and everything. And your mental health is going to be really good alongside that, if you're actually using your body rather than sitting at home and overthinking everything. If you're using your time wisely and keeping your body healthy, everything else follows. So get the right inspiration and the right guidance from [the right] people; they’re about, you've just got to be confident enough to ask for it and you’ll find them.”

Looking ahead, Lewis has plenty of ambitions for the future: “My next goal is to qualify for the Olympics, then take the gold there. And after that, I’ll turn professional and be chasing my goals there, so this is only just the start.”

Child Friendly Warwickshire also spoke to Edwin Cleary, co-founder of Cleary’s Boxing Gym, where Lewis trained. The gym does a lot for local young people in the area, as Edwin explained, “We look after the kids that nobody else wants to deal with. The kids that are normally troublesome, misbehave at school. The first line I say to the children when they come into the gym is you don’t have to be here, but you do have to go to school.”

Edwin Cleary posing with the CFW logo

Speaking about the feeling of belonging within boxing as a sport, and the absence of issues like racism, Edwin commented, “You go to any gym in this country and I am – my parents are Irish – but I am the ethnic minority at my gym. But that’s our family. If you go to any other gym, it’s exactly the same. You can have Asian kids there, West Indian kids, African kids, I’ve got Polish kids, a kid from Zimbabwe… they don’t even know each other, but they get along. We have no issues. Our sport doesn’t have a ‘kick it out’ thing because you can’t have an ounce of racism and be in our sport. Where society wants to get to, is what we like in our boxing.”

Lewis is beginning to see the impact of his Commonwealth Games success, but Edwin explained that it hasn’t ‘hit’ Cleary’s Gym yet: “A lot of the kids have been on holidays, but I would imagine that around about September time, which is traditional, [interest] will go through the roof.” The gym often sees a big increase in sign-ups at the start of the school term, and in anticipation of that, they’re investigating the possibility of opening a new premises to expand and reach more young people.

Getting people engaged with health and fitness after the pandemic is something a lot of local gyms and sports teams are trying to do. Through Child Friendly Warwickshire, larger partners and businesses in the Friends network are encouraged to sponsor local facilities like Cleary’s Gym, to give them a boost and ensure they can keep serving the local community despite the financial and social setbacks coronavirus caused in the industry.

To read our full interviews with Lewis and Edwin, visit the Child Friendly Warwickshire news page.

Thanks to Lewis and Edwin for their time, and thanks to Reece Singh Promotions for inviting us along to celebrate a historic achievement for Warwickshire, which we’re working to make more child friendly. If you’re interested in finding out more about Child Friendly Warwickshire, visit our website or follow Child Friendly Warwickshire on Twitter and Facebook. If you’re interested in boxing as a sport or just to keep fit, visit the Cleary’s Gym website and have a look at the many beginners classes on offer. For more information about how you can improve your health and wellbeing in Warwickshire, visit Warwickshire County Council’s website or look at the Fitter Futures scheme.