A 14-YEAR-OLD schoolboy from York, who took up kickboxing after being attacked in the street, is now heading to the world championships in Italy.

Bradley Headington from Strensall started kickboxing after an incident back in 2014, when as a seven-year-old, he was attacked by a group of young teenagers no more than 300 meters from his front doorstep.

His mum, Lorraine, said the incident had a profound effect on Bradley and left him not wanting to play outside for almost a year.

“Although this was a horrible experience for him, and involved the police, this incident was one of the sparks which drove Bradley to excel in a sport he loves so much,” said Lorraine.

Shortly after the incident, Bradley joined Long’s Blackbelt School in Haxby, now MA4U. He started with once-a-week sessions training under current co-owner Nicki Pratt and soon discovered it was something he enjoyed and was good at, so the weekly sessions increased.

He is now a 1st Dan Blackbelt and trains at the Thorpe Arch school in Wetherby four - six days a week under Jack Rhodes a semi-pro K1 fighter and Kay Calvert the schools boxing coach.

After competing in the World Kickboxing Organisation (WKO) English open, he was invited to try out for the WKO-GB squad which he did and is now part of.

He now has the opportunity to represent WKO-GB in the Unified World Championships in Italy at the end of October this year, with over 40 fighting organisations all taking their best fighters being part of the championships.

Lorraine says: “This will be Bradley’s toughest tournament challenge to date, the experience alone would develop Bradley’s future in tournament fighting no end.

“With an estimated cost of around £3,500 and Bradley knowing this he wanted to set himself a challenge to help fund part of the trip, so he set up a go fund me page and set a goal of £1,000.

“The challenge being the scenic route of John O Groats to Lands’ End twice which is a total of 2,168 miles that will be completed by run, walk and exercise bike. This is all tracked by the virtual conqueror and 10 days in he was already 60miles ahead of the pace setter and a quarter of the way to his goal at £250.

Click here to support Bradley.

Bradley is also searching for businesses who may be interested in longer term sponsorship deals to assist with additional PT sessions with MA4U specialist instructor’s and the renewal of his kit and equipment.

Lorraine said that Bradley has dyslexia and dyscalculia and he also has 80 per cent hearing loss in his left ear for which an Educational Health Care Plan was put in place for him. He attends Danesgate School in Fulford.

If you are a business wanting to help sponsor Bradley please email: haydn.lewis@thepress.co.uk