Following the sudden and tragic death of Nic Willoughby, aged 22, his friends and family set up a charitable fund in his name, in partnership with Heart of Bucks.
Following the first round of funding, a grant of £500 has been awarded to support Liam Hester, a pupil at Lord Williams’s School, which will enable Liam to represent Great Britain in the Flanders International Kickboxing Cup in September this year.
Nic loved nothing more than being involved in grassroots sports. Those closest to him decided that the fund would support activities which aim to increase engagement and participation as well as support those on talent programmes who might otherwise be unable to participate due to economic or other disadvantage.
Liam, aged 15, has been kickboxing for eight years and in 2018 represented Great Britain in the WAKO Cadets & Juniors World Championships. It was the third year running that he had been selected to compete for his country and he went on to make it all the way to the quarter finals.
At present, kickboxing at the level Liam is competing isn’t a funded sport. This means it is down to the individual to cover any costs associated with participating in tournaments at both country and club level.
Liam’s father, Grant Hester said:
"To be at the top level you need to compete at tournaments across the UK and Europe to fight the top fighters from different counties and countries. As you can imagine costs of equipment, training, travel and tournaments add up over the year so we are limited to the tournaments abroad that we can attend."
As a donor-advised fund, Nic’s friends and family wanted to support a pupil from Lord Williams’s School as Nic had been a former student there. Heart of Bucks worked with the school’s Head of PE to identify Liam as a worthy recipient of the award.
For more information about The Nic Willoughby fund, please click here.
