{"id":41776,"date":"2024-09-03T10:40:45","date_gmt":"2024-09-03T10:40:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/the-grenfell-boxers-fighting-to-honour-fire-victims\/"},"modified":"2024-09-03T10:40:46","modified_gmt":"2024-09-03T10:40:46","slug":"the-grenfell-boxers-fighting-to-honour-fire-victims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/the-grenfell-boxers-fighting-to-honour-fire-victims\/","title":{"rendered":"The Grenfell boxers fighting to honour fire victims"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\"BBCBBC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Tommy Murphy says his success in boxing will “always be in memory” of the victims of the Grenfell fire tragedy <\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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As boxing gyms go, Dale Youth Academy has got a proud history.<\/p>\n

World champion George Groves, Olympic gold medallist James DeGale and Daniel Dubois, who’s due to challenge Anthony Joshua this month, have all trained there.<\/p>\n

But part of its story is “hard to think about”, up-and-coming boxer Tommy Murphy tells BBC Newsbeat.<\/p>\n

The club used to be based in Grenfell Tower – the 23-storey tower block ravaged by a fire on 14 June 2017<\/p>\n

Seventy-two people died in the blaze – the worst residential fire since World War Two. <\/p>\n

A public inquiry, due to publish its findings this week, has been gathering evidence about what went wrong since 2018.<\/p>\n

To Tommy, that night is “just a blur”. <\/p>\n

“It\u2019s still half-unbelievable now,” he says. <\/p>\n

“You can\u2019t really explain the feeling. I was only going to the gym there but there\u2019s people who were living there and lost family members in there.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you ask most people who live locally it\u2019s a big part of them.”<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old boxer has been part of Dale Youth Academy since 2010 and turned professional in 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been coming here since I was a kid,” he says. <\/p>\n

“It\u2019s kept me and many other people out of trouble.”<\/p>\n

Tommy lives 10 minutes away from Grenfell but says he knew people who died in the fire that had supported him at the gym.<\/p>\n

“One of my good friends, his father died,” he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe used to help out in the gym. Coach, clean up, pad the boys, give advice and he tragically lost his life.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"The<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Dale Youth Academy is just a stone’s throw from its old home in Grenfell Tower<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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The gym had been renovated just months before the fire, and temporarily set up in a disused car park afterwards.<\/p>\n

BBC show DIY SOS helped build the gym<\/a> in Ladbroke Grove where the club’s now based, a stone’s throw from Grenfell Tower.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not easy to miss,” Tommy says. <\/p>\n

“Everywhere you go there\u2019s a memorial. Every year everyone does the silent march for it.”<\/p>\n

Since turning professional, Tommy\u2019s won all five fights he\u2019s had so far but the tragedy is never far from his thoughts. <\/p>\n

“It\u2019s always in our hearts but you don\u2019t really want to remember that sort of tragedy,” says Tommy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always think if I go on to do good things now it will always be in memory of the people in that gym.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

‘Keep going for them’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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\"Kyle<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Kyle was 13 when 72 people died in the Grenfell Tower fire says Dale Youth Academy means “everything” to him<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Another boxer, Kyle, also wants to honour the victims of the tragedy every time he steps into the ring. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt gives me a lot of inspiration,” he says. “I can literally see it [the building] right now. <\/p>\n

“It just makes me want to push every day. <\/p>\n

“I got given another chance at life, I\u2019ve got to keep going for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kyle’s 20, and was just 13 when the fire at Grenfell happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re 13 it affects you but you don\u2019t realise that it\u2019s affecting you day-to-day,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t realise what\u2019s really going on until later on down the line. <\/p>\n

“Only now it hits – all those people gone just like that.”<\/p>\n

Kyle, who lives barely 10 minutes from Grenfell, says the gym \u201cmeans everything\u201d to him, adding: \u201cI can\u2019t live without it to be honest\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt literally is my reason for living,” he says. <\/p>\n

“It sounds very sad but literally without this boxing gym I wouldn\u2019t be anything. It\u2019s literally my whole entire identity.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it got taken away I don\u2019t know what I would be.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

‘Grenfell in our hearts’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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\"Roshan<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

“To see that memorial on the tower makes you think they\u2019re always going to be remembered, never going to be forgotten,” says Roshan<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Like Kyle, 20-year-old Roshan Patel was in his early teens when the fire at Grenfell happened. <\/p>\n

He says at the time, it gave him a \u201creality check\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou think more about your family and friends and you want to make the most of your time with them. It really makes everyone closer together,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Seeing the tower, now covered in a memorial, “makes you think they [the victims] are always going to be remembered, never going to be forgotten,” he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you walk around the streets of Ladbroke Grove you see all of the memorials on the wall. <\/p>\n

“Everyone wants to keep a part of Grenfell in their hearts and not forget about it.”<\/p>\n

The gym and local area is “a big community”, he says. <\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone here is like your brothers and sisters, the coaches are like your uncles or even your second parents.”<\/p>\n

The boxers hope the inquiry’s report into the fire will finally provide the community with the answers it needs. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe people want to know what\u2019s happened, nobody\u2019s going to give up,” says Tommy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you know people from Ladbroke Grove, the way that we\u2019re bred, we\u2019re stubborn. <\/p>\n

“If people want answers, they\u2019ll get them and people won\u2019t stop until they get them.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Newsbeat<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
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Listen to Newsbeat <\/i>live<\/i><\/a> at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays – or listen back <\/i>here.<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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BBC Tommy Murphy says his success in boxing will “always be in memory” of the victims of the Grenfell fire tragedy As boxing gyms go, Dale Youth Academy has got a proud history. World champion George Groves, Olympic gold medallist James DeGale and Daniel Dubois, who’s due to challenge Anthony Joshua this month, have all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[279],"tags":[14935,435,666,626,3229,1640],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41776"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41776"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41778,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41776\/revisions\/41778"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}