SWINDON’S only charity-run boxing gym has celebrated its fifth birthday.

Scrappers in Hillmead was set up by Swindon Children’s Scrapstore after former ABA champion Paul Rogers and British kickboxing champion Andy Brown offered their time and skills to run a project that would motivate and inspire young people and adults.

Since then a host of volunteers have come forward to help and in the past year alone they have coached almost 2,000 youngsters between five and 19.

“During the past five years since we first opened we have worked directly with over 10,000 children and adults in the Swindon community,” said project manager Olivia McCann in her yearly report. “During the past five years, the project has made a massive impact and has played an important role within the local community and is a vital and unique facility and resource.”

The gym celebrated its anniversary with special event including boxing demonstrations and a visit by patron Ricky Porter, who was once among the world’s top 10 boxers.

Scrappers was born on the top floor of the old Farepak building in 2011, but was forced to relocate along with the Scrapstore in 2013 when it was marked for demolition.

The 24hr Gym in West Swindon offered space and then helped negotiate a lease on a larger building on the same site.

“Since then the gym has thrived and the demand for the project has increased year on year,” said Olivia.

Among the people to benefit from the facility are marginalised young people from deprived and disadvantaged backgrounds, disabled people and those with learning difficulties.

“The project works with social services, the youth offending team and local schools with the help of funding from organisations like the Big Lottery, the England Boxing Institute of Sport, Stratton St Margaret Parish Council and the people’s Health Trust.

“These funders are the silent heroes behind our good works and without them our communities would be a poorer place, in every possible way.”

She explained: “Whilst we can hope for funding externally to assist with the overhead costs, entry fees and donations are our main source of income. We commit to keeping the entry fees accessible to all, to enable the local community to access our services and resources. “Our aim is to become less reliant on grants by increasing our self-generated income.

It is important that our service user base is expanded and we ensure that income from projects is increased wherever possible to help us in achieving this aim.”