Beatbullying are very proud to announce our
latest patron, Joe Calzaghe. Calzaghe has spoken out about how he was
bullied as a child and has urged youngsters who are victims of bullying
to speak out. The boxing star admitted he finds it difficult to talk
about it even now.
He recalled that on one occasion, 30
children on BMX bikes cycled to his family home looking for a fight.
Calzaghes father, Enzo, told the youths if they wanted to fight his
son, they would have to do so one at a time. Calzaghe said: They
scarpered. At school, Calzaghe said the name calling, laughing and
insults in the playground led him to lose all confidence.
The
year the bullying started was the year he won his first amateur title.
He said: I became two people. On Saturday I was raising my ABA trophy
above my head. The next night I was sick and crying at the thought of
going to school the next day. Boxing was my salvation. Calzaghe urges
bullied children to speak up and get help and not to be embarrassed.
A Hertfordshire teenager, who turned his life around after bullying and
a stabbing threatened to send him off the rails, has been nominated for
an award. Nathaniel Watson, 15, devotes himself to a local youth club,
despite being bullied at school in Haringey, north London, and coping
with his elder brother being stabbed.
Now Nathaniel has been put forward for the News International Young
People of the Year (YOPEY) awards.He has been nominated by teacher
Cathy Walsh.
She said: "Even though he is an intelligent chap, he was disruptive in
classes and had the potential of choosing the wrong route while hanging
out with the wrong crowd."
However, he managed to overcome his problems. His brother recovered and
Nathaniel approached Cathy last year and expressed a wish to follow a
career path in youth work. Nathaniel volunteers every Wednesday at
Waltham Cross Youth Centre in Stanhope Road at a special evening
session open to young people, aged between 13 and 25, with learning
disabilities.
It’s safer internet day today and in support of this, Microsoft
has carried out research which looks at how European teenagers use the internet
and social networking sites . The results of the research show that more
than a quarter of British teenagers are victims of online bullying, according
to a report.
