Matt Taylor

The Mayor of Warrington, Clr John Joyce, recently gave Matt a ringing endorsement of his voluntary work with young people.

Matt has been volunteering with the NSPCC Participation Through Sport for five years. During this time, the 25-year-old from Grappenhall has taken on many different roles as a volunteer, contributing to sports festivals, community events and regular after-school clubs.

He has developed a boys’ and a girls’ handball club at the Peace Centre and an after-school multi-sports club for disadvantaged children. Matt regularly assists other younger volunteers with their development.

Nick Antrobus

Nick has proven himself to be an outstanding role model for young people.

The 40-year-old from Whitecross has completed more than 500 hours of volunteering work with young people, taking part in sports engagement activities over the past couple of years. Nick has taken on the role of chairman of charity Fit Kidz and has put lots of time and effort into the organisation.

He has shown outstanding commitment, often putting his own interests and financial gain aside and prioritised working with young people.

Phil Eastham

When it comes to helping young people through football either at home or abroad, Phil is always the first to volunteer.

He has raised thousands of pounds for local charity through fun runs and football matches. And the 42-year-old went back to Tanzania with the Village Africa charity for the second time earlier this month to help with the building of a primary school there and to set up a football academy.

The three-time Liverpool County FA North West coach of the year set up an managers an under-eights Crosfields girls’ team and his son Connor’s under-13s Matthiola team.

Mark Simmons

Mark (pictured left) has certainly been boxing clever in his multi-faceted role as a volunteer at a community sports club.

The 37-year-old has vastly improved the profile of Phoenix Fire Boxing Club since taking over the club and Phoenix’s show as are now bigger and better than ever.

Dedicated coach ‘Simmo’ has also been instrumental in successful partnerships with Great Sankey Parish Council (setting up a satellite boxing club) and the fire service (securing funding for a new gym to be built when the club was about to become homeless) that have been formed over the past year.

Simmo, who has been volunteering at Phoenix for more than 10 years, has a young family and a busy job as a manager of a large company. But that does not stop him from taking a huge interest in every boxer who walks into the gym.