ONE of the characters of Tenbury is making a life for himself in Spain.

Paddy Brennan was one of the town’s best known characters as the founder of the Tenbury Boxing Club that then became the Bluestone Academy.

He earned a name and a Queen’s Award for the Academy in recognition of his work with young people that had been excluded from schools.

This included providing training in skills like carpentry, bricklaying and hospitality.

Youngsters that had been excluded from schools were given the chance of a new start. Mr Brennan said that his own experiences as a young man had led him to start the initiative.

Born in trouble torn Northern Ireland he moved to Birmingham and started working in construction.

He also opened a club house for use by the community and built some glamping lodges on the site to help bring tourists to the area.

Before moving to Bleathwood, he ran the Boxing Club in the town and staged international amateur boxing tournaments at venues including Tenbury High School, believing that the discipline of boxing would be good for young people both males and female.

But two years ago he was made an offer he could not refuse for the Bleathwood site and decided to move for a time to Spain where he has been teaching boxing, recently staging his first international tournament.