Parky Blinders Receives The King’s Award for Voluntary Service

Newquay Boxing Academy has been recognised with The King’s Award for Voluntary Service for its inspiring ‘Parky Blinders’ initiative, which uses boxing to empower people living with Parkinson’s disease.

The programme delivers adaptive, non-contact boxing sessions which have been designed to improve participants’ physical mobility and cognitive function.

Through a range of tailored exercises, participants are encouraged to challenge their balance, posture, hand-eye coordination, reaction times and memory – helping them to build confidence and maintain independence.

Parky Blinders also serves as a social hub, bringing people together after training. Sessions are often followed by a visit to a local coffee shop, giving members the chance to socialise, share common experiences and build friendships too.

Since starting, the initiative has gone from strength to strength, with sessions initially expanding across the Southern Counties before reaching a wider audience.

Founder, Richard Powell has since teamed up with England Boxing to deliver workshops to coaches across the country, teaching them the skills to introduce the initiative in their own clubs and help more people living with Parkinson’s experience the benefits of boxing.

Speaking on receiving the prestigious award, Powell said: When we first started Parky Blinders as a small project within Newquay Boxing Academy, I don’t think any of us could have imagined just how far it would grow.

What started with a simple idea of using boxing to support people living with Parkinson’s has flourished into an incredible community. It has grown into something much bigger than boxing – a place where people find friendship, confidence, purpose and, above all, a sense of belonging.

I’m immensely proud of what our members, volunteers and coaching team have achieved together. They are the real reason Parky Blinders has become what it is today.

For me, this has always been about showing that Parkinson’s doesn’t define a person, and that a diagnosis shouldn’t stop anyone from living life to the fullest.

Receiving The King’s Award for Voluntary Service is an incredibly proud and humbling moment. It’s recognition not just of Parky Blinders, but of the people who turn up every week, support one another and demonstrate what community spirit really means.

I started this as a small project at our boxing club. Seeing what it has become is quite overwhelming. This award belongs to every single person who has been part of our journey.” 

Joff Wickham, a founding member of the programme, also commented: “Walking through the doors of the boxing gym on the first day of the new project, I couldn’t have imagined the journey that it would have taken me on! Thank you to the people who have dedicated their time and abilities to support me and so many others like me on our Parkinson’s journey.

Richard has created a community of amazing coaches who devote their time/abilities that not only helps us to achieve more, but has given us a strong sense of belonging and support that we could not have achieved on our own.

Non-contact boxing has helped me enormously with my strength, stamina and coordination. It’s not just the physical signs of Parkinson’s that people can see, but things like anxiety and isolation can often be just as much of a daily challenge. 

From day one, Parky Blinders has helped me to turn my mental health around and nearly five years later, I am in a far better place that I did not imagine was possible.  

This award is a testament to Richard, our coaches and fellow members who inspire me daily to achieve more and be the best person that I can be to fight Parkinson’s.”