My name is Derek and this is my story.

Last year I moved from my family home to a supported living service in Paisley. Jamie is my keyworker and we get on really well.

With the lockdown ending, we are all able to get more involved with our hobbies and go along to public events. With the re-opening of other local services, I am keen to get back to my other day opportunities where I can catch up with my friends.

I had the chance of a lifetime recently when I got to spar with one of my favourite athletes.

I went along to see British boxer Jack Catterall‘s open workout and weigh in event at the St. Enoch Centre with my keyworker, Jamie. On the morning of the event, Jamie managed to get in touch with Jack and explained that I was an avid boxing fan. When I got to the event Jack invited me into the ring to spar with him. The session was filmed and broadcast on Sky Sports News. The video ended up on Twitter where hundreds of thousands of social media users enjoyed viewing the clip. Check out the video here.

Since moving to my new home last year, I now have access to Sky Sports and YouTube where I have fallen in love with the sport of boxing. This is now one of my favourite hobbies, although lockdown did get in the way of me attending boxing events and classes. To keep involved, I follow along with boxing warm up routines like medicine ball slams and I practice shadow boxing outside.

I love to collect Boxing Magazine which comes out every Thursday and I am also beginning to amass a collection of my own sporting gear. So far I have my own boxing gloves and tape. For my birthday this year I requested a T-shirt to show my support of my favourite female boxer – Katie Taylor.