Kettering boxing club members urged to put 'knives down, gloves up' during special knife crime event

Members of a Kettering boxing club have been shown potentially life-saving skills during a presentation about knife crime.

Ashley Taylor, head coach at Kettering Amateur Boxing Club, organised a presentation on knife crime and the dangers of catastrophic bleeds earlier this month.

He invited Michael Costello from Spartan survival and first aid training to do a presentation for members.

Michael has more than 30 years’ experience in emergency services and survival training, and unfortunately a big part of his career has been having to deal with situations regarding knife crime as well as dealing with giving first aid to injured people.

While speaking to members, Michael also explained about situation awareness and how to see when a certain situation may arise.

Felice Santoriela, owner of FS Training, was also invited to be part of the event alongside Michael.

Felice has more than 35 years’ experience in medical situations working as a paramedic and ex-ambulance server.

They both explained the importance of how to stop a catastrophic bleed with props and recovery positions were demonstrated.

The Kettering gym members range in age from seven to 59 and everyone who attended the event received information that could potentially help them save a life.

Speaking afterwards, Ash Taylor said: “If we could save just one life from a situation, it’s been well worth the while.”

For more information about knife crime and the work being done in the county to tackle it, click here.