Meet the 15-Year-Old Golfer Breaking Barriers and Making History

Shyla Brown, a 15-year-old from McKinney, Texas, is making history as the youngest African-American Junior Golf Champion and the top-ranked African American Junior Golfer. Recently participating in the Southwest Airlines Showcase at Cedar Crest, she earned a spot on the 2023 American Junior Golf All-Star Team, becoming only the second African American to receive such an honor. Brown, who discovered her love for golf at the age of 8, remains focused on her ultimate goal of becoming a professional golfer and aspires to be among the greatest in the sport.

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A Young Fan Lost the Souvenir. An Officer Made It Right

What started as a letdown at a hockey game in Hartford ended with a police officer turning the night around for one young fan. Earlier this month, a family was at a Hartford Wolf Pack game when the team mascot pointed to a girl and her brother and tossed a T-shirt toward them. For a moment, it looked like the children had their big souvenir. Instead, the shirt bounced off the wall and ended up with another child, and the excitement quickly gave way to disappointment. Officer Christopher Vanwey, who was working the game, saw what happened and decided to step in. He surprised the little girl with a hockey toy and a soccer ball, changing the course of her night with what the family later described as a simple act of kindness. The moment stayed with the family, who said it gave them a chance to teach their children about compassion and the positive role police officers play in the community. In a letter later shared with the Hartford Police Department, the girl’s mother thanked Vanwey for what he did. She wrote that the gesture “made my daughter’s day.” She also wrote: “I hope this card can get to the police officer. Thanks for all you do each and every day to protect us all. Thanks for teaching my children about kindness. A very appreciative mom, Leah.” The girl, Bella, wrote her own thank-you note to the officer. “You are very thoughtful. Thank you for the hockey toy and the soccer ball. I hope you have a good day. – Bella.” The Hartford Police Department later shared the story on Facebook and said the moment reflected the kind of work that matters most to officers. “This is what policing is about, showing up, paying attention, and making a difference when it matters most.” 📸Credit: Hartford Police CT

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Exercise In Midlife Cuts Premature Death Risk For Women in Half, Study Finds

For women in midlife, keeping moving appears to matter a lot. New research found women who stayed active throughout middle age cut their risk of premature death by half. The study tracked more than 11,000 women and found that meeting exercise guidelines during midlife had “strong” benefits in terms of living longer. The findings showed that women who consistently met physical activity guidelines throughout middle age had half the chance of dying from any cause compared to women who remained inactive. Researchers used data from 11,169 women born between 1946 and 1951 who enrolled in the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health. Participants were surveyed nine times between 1996 and 2019, about once every three years. The study collected data on how often the women met the World Health Organization recommendation of at least 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per week. The results were published in the journal PLOS Medicine. Physical activity is already known to provide multiple well-being benefits and to reduce the risk of chronic diseases and premature death. But the researchers said most previous studies measured physical activity at only a single point in time, which failed to capture how activity levels changed over time. In this study, consistently meeting moderate-to-vigorous physical activity recommendations throughout midlife was linked to a relative risk of death from any cause that was half that of women who consistently did not meet the recommendations. The incidence of death was 5.3 percent among women who consistently met the guidelines. That compared with 10.4 percent among women who consistently did not meet them. The researchers said the apparent effect was similar, or even stronger, for deaths linked to cardiovascular disease and cancer. But they said those estimates came with greater uncertainty, making the findings less conclusive. They said that may be because fewer deaths from those causes were observed in the study. The study also looked at the benefits of starting to meet physical activity recommendations later in midlife, at age 55, 60 or 65, instead of throughout all of midlife. The researchers said the evidence for benefits in those cases was uncertain and inconclusive. Study author Dr. Binh Nguyen, of the University of Sydney, Australia, said: “This study supports the growing evidence that maintaining an active lifestyle in midlife provides health benefits. “Women should be encouraged to meet physical activity recommendations throughout middle age to derive these benefits.” Dr. Nguyen added: "Staying active throughout midlife can make a real difference for women’s long-term health. "Our study shows that maintaining recommended levels of physical activity over multiple years helps protect against early death.” The study followed women over more than two decades, with surveys carried out from 1996 to 2019. It focused on a group born between 1946 and 1951 and measured how often they reached the World Health Organization target of at least 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity each week. The central finding was clear. Women who kept meeting that target across middle age had a much lower risk of dying from any cause than women who stayed inactive. The death rate in the active group was 5.3 percent, compared with 10.4 percent in the inactive group. The researchers said the findings add to evidence in support of regular physical activity in midlife, while also showing the value of tracking activity over time instead of relying on a single snapshot. Dr. Nguyen said: “Women should be encouraged to meet physical activity recommendations throughout middle age to derive these benefits.”

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Scientists Discover Alien Space Weather Stations That May Reveal Habitable Planets

It turns out some young stars may come with their own built-in monitoring system. Carnegie researcher Luke Bouma is studying a new way to examine how stars shape the planets around them, using naturally occurring "space weather stations" that appear around some young stars. His findings are being presented this week at the American Astronomical Society meeting. The work focuses on M dwarf stars, which are smaller, cooler and dimmer than our Sun. Most of them host at least one rocky planet about the size of Earth. Many of those planets are not seen as friendly to life. The source text says they may be too hot, may lack stable atmospheres, or may be exposed to frequent flares and intense radiation. Even so, they give scientists a chance to study how stars affect the conditions around their planets. "Stars influence their planets. That's obvious. They do so both through light, which we're great at observing, and through particles -- or space weather -- like solar winds and magnetic storms, which are more challenging to study at great distances," Bouma explained. "And that's very frustrating, because we know in our own Solar System that particles can sometimes be more important for what happens to planets." Directly placing instruments around distant stars to measure that space weather is not possible, according to the source text. Bouma, working with Moira Jardine of the University of St Andrews, instead turned to an unusual class of M dwarfs known as complex periodic variables. These young stars spin rapidly and show repeated dips in brightness. Scientists had been unsure if those dips came from dark spots on the star itself or from material orbiting nearby. "For a long time, no one knew quite what to make of these oddball little blips of dimming," Bouma said. "But we were able to demonstrate that they can tell us something about the environment right above the star's surface." To study that further, the team created what the source text describes as "spectroscopic movies" of one of the stars. Their analysis found the dimming comes from large clouds of relatively cool plasma trapped within the star's magnetosphere. Those plasma clumps are carried along by the star's magnetic field and form a doughnut-shaped structure called a torus. "Once we understood this, the blips in dimming stopped being weird little mysteries and became a space weather station," Bouma exclaimed. "The plasma torus gives us a way to know what's happening to the material near these stars, including where it's concentrated, how it's moving, and how strongly it is influenced by the star's magnetic field." Bouma and Jardine estimate that at least 10 percent of M dwarfs may have these plasma structures during their early stages. The source text says that could give astronomers a way to better understand how stellar particles affect planetary environments. Bouma's next goal is to work out where the material in the torus comes from, either the star itself or an external source. "This is a great example of a serendipitous discovery, something we didn't expect to find but that will give us a new window into understanding planet-star relationships," Bouma concluded. "We don't know yet if any planets orbiting M dwarfs are hospitable to life, but I feel confident that space weather is going to be an important part of answering that question." 📸 Credit: Navid Marvi, Carnegie Science

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Epilepsy Drug Cuts Children's Seizures by 80% in Phase 2 Trial

For children with Dravet syndrome, a rare form of treatment-resistant epilepsy, a phase 2 clinical trial in England has delivered striking results. The trial tested a drug called Zorevunersen in 81 children aged 2 to 18 who were having up to 18 seizures a month as a result of the condition. The children were given three doses at Great Ormond Street Hospital, in a trial co-organised by University College London. After one dose, monthly seizures were reduced by 50 percent. After three doses, that reduction reached 80 percent. The drug was well-tolerated by all 81 patients, and no significant side effects were reported. Researchers also reported improvements beyond seizure numbers. The reduction in seizures was linked to better quality of life for the children, including improved development outcomes, especially in motor skills and communication. It also improved their markers for “coping” with Dravet syndrome. Dravet syndrome is believed to affect 3,000 children in England. It is one of hundreds of forms of genetic epilepsy that have no pharmacological options. The trial was led by Helen Cross, director and professor of childhood epilepsy at the UCL Institute of Child Health, and consultant pediatric neurologist at Great Ormond. “I regularly see patients with hard-to-treat genetic epilepsies, who can have multiple seizures a week,” Professor Cross said. “Many are unable to do anything independently for themselves; they require around the clock care and are at high risk of sudden expected death in epilepsy.” Professor Cross said she was hopeful that Zorevunersen “could help children with Dravet syndrome lead much healthier and happier lives”. She is now organising a phase 3 trail that will study the drug over a much longer period of time to control for potentially serious side effects. Scientists not involved in the study said the result could reach beyond one condition. They said the success of Zorevunersen showed pharmaceuticals can improve the lives of patients with these epilepsies, and could help drive work on other treatments and cures. “There are now over 800 genetic epilepsies that need therapeutics similar to Zorevunersen,” Dr Alfredo Gonzalez-Sulser, from the Institute for Neuroscience and Cardiovascular Research at the University of Edinburgh, told the Guardian. “This sets a clear path to achieve effective interventions for these severe life-altering diseases for both patients and carers.” Photo by Tara Winstead on Pexels (https://www.pexels.com/photo/cancer-ribbon-on-white-surface-8385408/)

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Kung-Fu Master Achieves Highest Honor, Level 10 Grandmaster, at 83 Years Old

For Henry Sue, kung fu started as a way to push back. As a teenager in Brisbane in the 1950s, he learnt martial arts after bikie gangs repeatedly targeted his father's Chinese restaurant. "The bikie gangs would come to the place, eat, and don't want to pay, just go out," he told ABC News Australia. "You'd ask them for money and they'd smash your stuff. "Because of the White Australia policy there was fighting almost every Friday, Saturday, Sunday." Mr Sue said the shop windows were smashed so often that insurers refused to cover them. He said kung fu taught him to stand up for himself at a time when the Chinese community was marginalised in Australia. Now, decades later, the 83-year-old is set to receive the highest rank in the art he turned to in those years. On Saturday, Mr Sue will become a level 10 kung fu grandmaster, the highest possible rank in kung fu. He will receive the honour at his Chinese Kung Fu Academy in East Brisbane, the oldest surviving kung fu school in Australia. Mr Sue teaches Southern Praying Mantis Kung Fu, a style known for its aggressive, close quarters techniques. He teaches his own variant, Circular Tong Long, which incorporates the circular movements of Tai Chi. Among his students is Marc Webster, who now teaches Circular Tong Long at his own academy on the Gold Coast. Grandmaster Webster said the tenth level was kung fu's highest honour, with only a few existing in the entire world. He said Mr Sue's role as a sifu went well beyond training students in martial arts. "Sifu is a teacher, [a] father," Mr Webster said. "If we have a problem and want to come see him he'll make time for us. "It's not just about the art, but making sure we're moving ahead with our lives in the right direction." Mr Sue said that approach has shaped the way he has run his school. He said he followed a strict "no thugs" policy and had expelled students in the past for using kung fu to bully others. For him, kung fu was never meant to be used as a tool for violence. He said it was a pathway to living an honourable life. "Kung fu is the last thing you learn," Mr Sue said. "You've got to respect your parents, respect your teacher, respect the teaching, and learn to be kind, forgiving and courageous." 📸 credit: ABC News: Luke Bowden

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'Bikes Not Bombs' Marks 40 Years Promoting Social Justice

When the CIA was supporting rebel attacks against the socialist government of Nicaragua, a Boston bike mechanic helped start a movement that became Bikes Not Bombs. Elijah Evans, the CEO of the Jamaica Plain-based nonprofit, said the idea was simple from the start. "Our founders wanted to build a community-wide effort to support the community there in Nicaragua. Instead of sending bombs, we sent bikes," Evans said to WCVB. More than 40 years later, Bikes Not Bombs is still operating from its hub and bike shop on Amory Street in Boston. Today, the nonprofit ships about 3,500 bikes each year to countries in Central America, the Caribbean and Africa. Evans said the group does that with goals of advancing environmental, economic, and social justice. The organization’s work in Boston has also grown over the decades. Evans said Bikes Not Bombs has been running youth programs since the 1990s. "At the time in the '90s, there was a pretty high rise in violence and there were limited opportunities for young people to be engaged after school and during the summer and so our Earn-A-Bike program became our intervention strategy," Evans said. The Earn-A-Bike program lets kids choose a bike, learn how to fix it, learn how to safely navigate the city, and then take the bike home. It is also how Evans first connected with the organization. "I was 14 years old," Evans said. "It was the first time when I really felt embraced by a community that didn't know me but wanted me to feel welcomed and to be a part of the joy that they were experiencing." That sense of connection is something Kelvin Gonzalez and Erwin Gonzalez say they also found at Bikes Not Bombs. The brothers, who are both in high school, said the nonprofit has had a big impact on them. "The people that worked alongside me, I felt very drawn to them," Kelvin said. "I've never really felt like that before, not even in school. I felt like I had like a second family here." Both brothers said they are grateful to Bikes Not Bombs for hiring them as Youth Apprentices. The career development program includes learning repairs and teaching other people. "You could learn how to communicate," Erwin said to WCVB. "How to work with your friends … community, and learn how to bond, teamwork." Alongside its youth programs and international shipments, Bikes Not Bombs also depends on support from the local community. The nonprofit accepts bike donations, sells bikes, and repairs them for the public. It also relies on volunteers. "When we need to pack a container (for a) shipment or if we're teaching a class, often we'll train volunteers in how to do that," Evans said. The organization also holds an annual Bike-A-Thon. This year’s event is in May, and registration is underway. For Evans, the nonprofit’s history and its current work are closely linked. The group started as an effort to support people in Nicaragua by sending bicycles instead of weapons, and it now ships thousands of bikes each year while continuing youth programs in Jamaica Plain. Those programs have introduced generations of young people to bike repair, city riding, and work opportunities. For Evans, that started when he was 14. For Kelvin and Erwin Gonzalez, it includes jobs as Youth Apprentices. Bikes Not Bombs welcomes bike donations from the community and support from volunteers. Evans said volunteers are often trained to help pack shipping containers or assist when the nonprofit is teaching a class.

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Too Late For Football? Not For This 50-Year-Old Dad

Most college football players worry about midterms. Orson Villalobos has a son in middle childhood and a dream he refused to leave behind. At 50, the Compton College player is doing something most people would have talked themselves out of years ago. He is back in school, back in pads and back chasing a goal he first set aside about 30 years ago. “I came back to finish something I started a long time ago... 30 years ago,” Villalobos told ABC7. His return has turned heads for the obvious reason. Junior college football is usually a young man’s game. Villalobos is old enough to be the father of many of the players around him. That reality is not lost on Compton College head football coach David Banuelos. “Well, you’ve got to have great respect for a guy that’s 50 years old and wants to play this game,” Banuelos said to ABC7. But Villalobos is not on the field for a novelty act or a personal stunt. He says this chapter is tied to something bigger than one season. He is taking classes at Compton College and working toward degrees in kinesiology and coaching, while also suiting up for the team. “That’s my real wish. It’s my real dream to be a coach,” he said. For Villalobos, the finish line is already in sight, even if it is still years away. He wants to be ready to coach his son, Orson Villalobos II, by the time the boy reaches 9th grade. That goal gives his comeback an extra layer. This is not only about reclaiming a part of his own life. It is also about being present for his son in a way that is practical, visible and lasting. The push to join the team, Villalobos said, started with one simple comment from that same son. “He said one day, ‘I wish I could have seen you play football.’” That sentence seems to have done what decades could not. It moved the dream from memory into action. Now his son does not have to imagine it. He gets to watch it happen. And from his seat, the older Villalobos does not look out of place. “His friends told me that when people tried to tackle him, they would just bounce off him,” Villalobos II said. It is the kind of line that sounds like playground exaggeration, except it comes with a little awe and a lot of pride. When asked directly how he feels about his dad’s game, the younger Villalobos did not hesitate. “Very much,” he replied. That may be the simplest part of the story, and maybe the biggest. A father went back to finish what he started. A son got to see it with his own eyes. And somewhere between the classes, the practices and the collisions, Villalobos is building the version of himself he still wants to become. His path is hardly typical. Most people do not return to college football at 50. Most do not try to restart a dream while raising a child and working toward a second act. But Villalobos seems to be making the case that dreams do not expire just because life got busy. For now, he is still in school, still in uniform and still working toward the sideline job he wants most. “That’s my real wish. It’s my real dream to be a coach,” he said.

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Los Angeles Woman Marks 80th Birthday By Serving Meals To People In Need

Some people mark an 80th birthday with a party. Marcia Brous marked hers by asking people to help feed others. The Los Angeles woman celebrated the milestone by giving back to the community, inviting family and friends to make meals for people struggling, especially after SNAP benefits were cut for many Angelenos. "I like to be able to help other people," Marcia said to KABC. The effort took place at the Sova Community Food and Resource Center, a program of Jewish Family Service L.A. Marcia’s daughter, Sharon Brous, said the family did not know how many people would come. "Honestly, we didn't know how many people were going to show up," Sharon Brous said to KABC. Ninety-four people turned out. During Thanksgiving weekend, Marcia’s guests put together meals of veggies, rice, falafel and tomato sauce, all labeled kosher. Marcia said the response left her overwhelmed. She has also been volunteering every week for the past six months. "I get the joy out of being able to continue to feed people with anywhere from 0 to 700 meals in an hour and a half," Marcia said to KABC. Her family said the service has become a big part of her life. "The real story is, my dad died just two years ago. My mom, in her grief, has gotten really, really involved in the community, and I feel for her. This is an expression of her love and a commitment to this next chapter of her life, really being about service," Sharon said. Sharon described her mother as deeply committed to showing up for others. "She's a pretty dedicated member of the community. She never misses a shiva. She always shows up," Sharon said. Marcia’s other daughter, Devorah Brous, said that focus on other people has always come first. "She's always prioritizing the needs of people around her. She puts that before her own needs," Devorah Brous said. Marcia is now urging others to help too, especially people in need. "If you really want to help, help the homeless, help the needy, and let's do something together," Marcia said.

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Sperm Whales Observed Gathering to Assist a Calf's Birth

A group of sperm whales did something scientists had never seen this clearly before. Off Dominica in July 2023, two family groups came together and took turns helping a calf be born, then kept the newborn at the surface so it could breathe. The event is described in a new study published in Science Advances. Researchers say it is the first detailed record of this kind of coordinated birth support in sperm whales. Over several hours on July 8, 2023, scientists recorded two sperm whale family groups in the Caribbean Sea off Dominica. The groups were unrelated matrilines that usually forage separately. “Our results suggest that kin and non-kin engaged in sustained, cooperative postnatal care, taking turns to support the newborn and maintain group cohesion, in contrast to historical kin-segregated foraging patterns,” wrote a cross-disciplinary team led by computer scientist Alaa Maalouf of MIT’s Project CETI. “These findings provide rare quantitative evidence of direct allocare [caring for non-biologically related offspring] in cetaceans and can lend support to the hypothesis that transient, structured cooperation during birth is a key mechanism sustaining complex sociality in sperm whales.” Sperm whales are highly social animals and live in groups. Their smallest clan units can include up to 10 individuals and are matrilineal, led by a mother and made up of her daughters. Adult males usually live separately and only visit female groups for reproduction. Scientists do not know much about how that social structure works during births. Before this event, only four sperm whale births had been reported in the past 60 years, and all were either anecdotal or observed in whaling contexts. Those reports suggested some level of group support, but it had not been documented in detail. Maalouf and his colleagues were already in the field off Dominica in July 2023 as part of Project CETI, which is trying to decipher sperm whale communication using recordings and machine learning. At 9:50 am local time, researchers came across a group of 11 sperm whales gathered at the surface. The behaviour was unusual enough that the team stopped and deployed observational tools including hydrophones for audio and drones for overhead video. At 11:12 am, a pregnant whale known as Rounder began delivering her calf. The birth took 34 minutes. Other adult females positioned themselves around her in a tight, synchronized formation. At 11:46 am, scientists saw plumes of blood and the newborn calf. What followed lasted about an hour. According to the study, newborn sperm whales are likely unable to stay afloat on their own, so members of the extended group took turns lifting and pushing the calf to the surface to breathe. “The group rapidly transitioned to cohesive and highly active behavior; individuals took turns lifting the newborn, physically supporting and pushing it to the surface, consistent with supporting a negatively buoyant neonate. This phase continued for about an hour, during which time the entire unit remained tightly grouped,” the researchers wrote. The study also recorded other cetaceans nearby during the birth. “In addition, there were close passes by Fraser’s dolphins (Lagenodelphis hosei) and brief interactions with pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus), which encompassed the sperm whale cluster and occasionally dove beneath them.” To work out exactly what happened, the team used machine learning and computer vision to identify individual whales, track their movements and examine how they interacted during and after the birth. That analysis found all 11 whales in the group took at least one turn supporting the calf in the hour after birth. About 96 percent of that support time came from four whales: Rounder, the mother; Aurora, her half-sister; Ariel, a juvenile unrelated to Rounder; and Atwood, an older relative of Rounder. Researchers also recorded an active acoustic environment throughout the birth, but the new study did not analyse what the whales were vocalising. It focused on their actions. Still, the team says the observations add to the understanding of sperm whale social behaviour. “Our results provide quantitative evidence for the paradigm that calf survival, particularly around births, drives selection for the social bonds underpinning the complex social organization that has evolved in sperm whales,” the researchers wrote. “These findings place the complexity of sperm whale birth behavior and coordination in comparative context with terrestrial mammals, including primates and humans, raising questions about the cognitive architectures and communication systems that support and mediate these behaviors.” 📸credit: Project CETI

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This 10-Year-Old, Who is Blind, Learns Boxing With Punch-by-Numbers System

In Archie Hayes's boxing lessons, the punches come with numbers. The 10-year-old from Bristol, who is blind, has learned to box through a simple system from his coach. "One" means jab, "two" means cross, "three" means hook and "four" means upper cut. Archie trains three times a week with coach Andy O'Kane, 62, at Paddy John's Boxing Gym in Bristol. During sessions, Andy calls out number combinations to guide him in the ring. Archie was born blind, but that did not stop him from taking up the sport and following his brother Josh, 15, who is also a boxer. Andy has been a boxing coach at the gym for more than 20 years and said he is "really proud" to be able to teach a young blind boy how to box. "Archie is hard working," says Andy. "He pays attention, he soaks up every single thing you tell him and he picks it up really quick. He has been with us for 18 months and he can box - he understands boxing. He does everything that any young person involved in boxing does. Because he is blind he is having to put complete faith in what I tell him. "He memorizes everything that I say to the point that if I make a mistake he will tell me. I'm really proud that a blind young boy can be included in the sport and in this club." Archie was born blind, but it took doctors seven months to get a full diagnosis. After several tests, he was diagnosed with Leber's Congenital Amaurosis, or LCA, a rare, inherited eye disorder that affects the retina. For training, Archie uses punch bags and pad work. He also takes part in sparring sessions with fully-sighted colleagues. Andy said it started gradually before becoming a regular part of club life. "I was starting to do little bits with him and then he really got interested and his dad asked if we could make this a regular thing and that's what we did," he said. It was about trying to get him to be part of the club as well. "Now he comes into the classes and he trains and the other kids are completely oblivious to it, they don't have any issue. The fact that he can't see doesn't change anything." Archie said boxing makes him feel stronger. "I like it because it makes me really strong and powerful," he said. "Boxing teaches you to become tough because I'm punching bags and stuff." His parents, Fred Hayes, 37, and Natalie Hayes, 40, said they have never "wrapped Archie up" and have always allowed him to do what he wants. "He was born blind so we don't know any different to everybody else so that's his way of life," said Natalie. "It doesn't affect him that he can't see, he is happy the way he is. I call him the champ." "Me and mum have never wrapped him up, we have just let him get on with it," said Fred. "He is got to learn with it. There's nothing that can be done to bring Archie's vision back at the moment but we don't know what the future technology might bring. He is happy the way he is." Archie often tunes in to hear boxing combats and said he wants to keep boxing for a long time. "It's really fun," he said. "It's a good sport and I like hearing it on the telly." He has also met Tyson Fury, Joseph Parker and Conor Benn. Andy said he hopes Archie's experience encourages other blind children to try boxing. "If that sends out a message to other blind kids that wanna they can try their boxing club then that's fantastic," he said. "It's nice to think that boxing can move on and the coaches have got open minds. "I'm really proud that he chose our club."

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