Charity martial arts day held (From Swindon Advertiser)

Charity martial arts day held

1:40pm Monday 30th March 2009 in

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A MARTIAL arts combat day in Swindon raised funds that will help save the lives of near extinct Amur tigers and leopards in Russia.

More than 30 people took part in 100 rounds of sparring at New College’s sports centre yesterday which was organised by Ashley Eaglestone, chairman of Swindon Martial Arts.

An outer circle moved around an inner circle of people to have 40 seconds of sparring each before moving onto the next opponent.

The aim of the day was to raise more than £2,000 to help support the Amur charity.

Money will be used to send a vet out to the far east of Russia to catch, treat, tag and release some of the rarest wild cats on the planet.

There are only 450 Amur tigers and 35 Amur leopards remaining in the wild.

Members of Jujitsu Karate Kai, the Swindon Skikuki Karate Club, Smnf Kickboxing, LA Marshall Arts, the Amateur Kickboxing Academy and Swindon Muay Thai Kickboxing were all involved on the day.

Ten-year-old Natasha Edwards from Rodbourne, who goes to Even Swindon Primary School, said: “Martial arts give you discipline and you can protect yourself if you are attacked in the street. My favourite move is a flying side-kick.

“This is a good event as it helps raise money for the tigers and the leopards who could become extinct if nothing is done to protect them.”

Sharon Miller from the charity Amur was hugely thankful after the Swindon event proved a great success.

She said: “This money will go towards sending a top English vet out to Russia for a month.

“In that time he’ll go out with a small team who will spend days waiting to catch these wild cats. It could be about four they manage to get.

“They can then check for disease, plan their fertility management and tag them.

“There are 37 people here and just 35 Amur leopards left in the wild - that really puts it into perspective.” For more information about the animal charity, please call 01225 851251 or visit www.amur.org.uk.