12th February 2006

The Han Soo Kwan Taekwondo club is based in Burnley town centre. The club has approximately 25 students, and has a good reputation for producing students of very high standard. The club boasts two 3rd dan blackbelts, one 2nd dan blackbelt and two 1st dan blackbelts amongst its ranks.

The club is run by Senior Instructor Rob Mowat, who is a 4th dan blackbelt in WTF Taekwondo. The club has been running for 7 years, and is a member of the British Taekwondo Control Board, who govern Taekwondo in the UK.

One of the club’s students, Caroline, asked for CRY to be considered as the beneficiary of the Sponsored Breaking Day. Caroline knew Mark Pover, who died suddenly in 2002 whilst playing football, aged just 17.

The Taekwondo club geared itself up with over 200 pieces of 1 inch thick pine wood, for a 2 hour board-smashing and breaking event, to raise money for CRY.

The 2 hour session was a great success, with over 200 boards broken by all the students. The club members raised £700 between them, by gathering sponsor money from family and friends.

The local media were present to provide coverage on radio and through the local newspapers, to try and raise more awareness about CRY and the good work they do.

We were quite happy with the day’s breaking, and hope that we have helped to create more interest in CRY.

All students and instructors had some bumps and bruises to show for their efforts, but as far as we are concerned, it was well worth it!

The wood was donated by Martin Collins Joinery company in Burnley, and we also had a £100 donation from a local care company called Northern Care. This money was donated by The Nook Children’s Home, Colne, Lancashire.

We had great fun taking part in this event and I hope that if any other martial artists see this on the website then they might decide to run a sponsored breaking event themselves……….you never know!

Rob Mowat