A NEWLY-OPENED gym in Old Colwyn has been supporting a poor boxing community in Africa by sending equipment over to them.

Mac's Gym officially opened on June 16. After months of donating items to the boxing-mad residents of Gayaza, Uganda, it now hopes to raise at least £1000 via a GoFundMe page to help the Gym of the same name develop.

In 2018, owner of the Old Colwyn site Ryan Mac was contacted by Ugandan Andreas Kikonyogo via social media after he had been following the Welshman's boxing progress.

After seeing Andreas' love for the sport, Ryan decided to start sending equipment over to the Ugandan gym to help give young people the chance to get involved.

"Our goal is to help and support people in Gayaza in the years to come, one day I want to be able to visit and document the experience first hand to see what we can achieve when we work together," Ryan said.

"We are going to be holding fundraising events in the coming months to help make Mac's Gym Uganda a success and give people new opportunities.

"The Uganda appeal has gone really well so far, raising over £400 via GoFundMe, which is a massive contribution so I'm very grateful to those who have donated. As soon as everything calms down in the new gym I can focus on sending the rest of the equipment over there.

"I have collected 35/40kg of equipment in my gym already, including boxing gloves and mitts, clothing, headgear, hand wraps, empty punch bags and fitness equipment which are all ready to be sent."

The opening of Mac's Gym, which has relocated from Colwyn Bay to Old Colwyn, took place on Sunday, June 16.

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It offers boxing sessions for men, women and kids throughout the week (except Sunday's).

Ryan (above) said: "I was really happy with the turnout for the opening day, close to 70 people made the effort to come down which I thought was amazing. I am looking forward to seeing how well the gym does as I've had such a great response already and I couldn’t be happier right now."