It all started back in February this year. I had heard that there was going to be a charity ball for Josh Merrick’s 21st birthday.

I spoke to Karen and Andy Merrick who are Josh’s mother and father asking if it was OK if I could do a charity boxing event to raise awareness for C-R-Y and also in memory of Josh. Karen and Andy thankfully said yes.

So I got the ball rolling by looking round for marquees to hire and a boxing ring. I found a marquee which was a company called Alba Marques, the ring was from Ringmaster.
It was held at Burnage Rugby Club because Josh was a Burnage player.

The fighting started at 20:30 and ended at 23:00. It was a massive success with nearly 200 people attending and we are now going to make it an annual event which is great news .

I would like to say a massive thank you to Catherine Doyle, Mikey Stopford, Cliff Woodworth, Kevin Daly, Steve Willock, Ken Brown, Jeff Ball, Mrs Cassidy, and Burnage Rugby Club. I would also like to thank every single person who attended the night. If it wasn’t for you it wouldn’t have been such a success and a massive thank you to the very talented Alex Miller who did the amazing video .

Nathan King