Aviva Community Fund film features Adams’ journey to the top with the support of her amateur club
The most successful female boxer in British history has revealed how the family environment and support of her grassroots boxing club was influential in her journey to the top of the sport, as part of a new campaign from Aviva.
Nicola Adams MBE has had her fair share of challenges on the road to stardom, but the support she has received along the way from Haringey Police Community Boxing Club in London has helped her overcome setbacks and reach the pinnacle of her sport.
To launch the 2016 Aviva Community Fund, the 33-year-old has had her story told in a new film from Aviva. Growing up in Leeds, Adams was an avid fan of boxing after being inspired by greats of the sport, Muhammed Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard, and falling in love with their brash and eye-catching style both in and out of the ring.
Her first taste of boxing was during an after-school class at Burmantofts Boxing Club, but when the club was forced to shut down, the young flyweight – who would go on to become the first female boxer to ever represent England – moved to Haringey to continue her training.
Despite injury setbacks, including a fractured vertebrae in her neck, she would go on to create history by winning numerous European and world titles. Now Adams, along with Aviva, wants to support the next generation of talent and safeguard the future of grassroots sports clubs across the UK by encouraging them to enter the Aviva Community Fund – a nationwide initiative lending a helping hand to grassroots sports clubs and community causes by offering funding of between £1,000 and £25,000.
This year, Aviva has introduced a ‘Sport in the Community’ category, which means the hundreds of thousands of local grassroots sports clubs across the UK can apply or reapply for funding in a sport specific category this time around.
Pete Markey, Brand & Marketing Communications Director at Aviva UK, said: “The Aviva Community Fund is the perfect way for Aviva to help communities come together and support the grassroots sports clubs and local causes that are central to a strong community. Last year the Aviva Community Fund helped make a difference to hundreds of projects and causes the length and breadth of the UK and we look forward to helping even more communities this year. It was a pleasure to be able to tell Nicola Adams’ unique story of how her amateur club helped her achieve her dreams, showing the hugely important role of grassroots clubs in society.”
In its first year, the Aviva Community Fund benefitted over 320,000 people through 431 winning projects, clubs and causes across the UK.
To enter your club for a chance to secure funding, visit https://community-fund.aviva.co.uk/ or search for ‘Aviva Community Fund’.
A project can be submitted by, or on behalf of, any not-for-profit community organisation or sports club with an average annual income of no more than £5 million. Each project must then be promoted to as many friends, family and neighbours as possible to get them to vote for it once voting opens on 21st October.
The entries with the most votes will go through to the finals where a panel of judges will choose the winning projects for the higher funding tiers. In the £1,000 funding level, those with the most votes are automatically winners provided they meet the due diligence requirements. Winners will be announced on 10th January 2017.
Watch Aviva’s new film starring Nicola Adams here: https://youtu.be/PQLo8Nvm0Ew
–ENDS–