By Tom Podmore
Some of the country's finest fighters have put their collective fistic weight behind a fundraiser to help one of the most popular men in British boxing.
Much-touted heavyweight hope Tyson Fury, the fighting Smiths of Liverpool [Paul, Stephen, Liam and Callum] and recent world title challenger Kevin Mitchell will, amongst others, join Brummie favourites Frankie Gavin [the newly-crowned British welterweight champion], Max Maxwell and Prizefighter finalist Terry Carruthers at Jon Pegg's Midlands Boxing Academy, on Bromsgrove Street in Birmingham city centre, on December 4 to raise funds for cancer sufferer Andrew Milwall.
Banbury-based Milwall, who runs the hugely-popular Boxing Predictions League, was diagnosed with an incurable and inoperable form of small cell lung cancer earlier in the year and given the earth-shattering prognosis that he only had a handful of weeks left to live.
Unfazed by the crushing news that would have stopped a lesser man in his tracks, he started an intensive course of chemotherapy in May and, more recently, a bout of radiotherapy in the hope of defying the experts' opinions and extending his life.
Though his long-term future is currently unclear - and he is meeting with doctors later this month to asses the next move - former five-time world champion Jane Couch set about arranging a free-to-attend fundraiser to honour the hard-working boxing fanatic, who has been known to spend up to 20 hours per day helping fighters sell tickets and gain the publicity they fail to receive in their local areas.
So far, a host of ex-world champions [including Birmingham-born, Telford-based former WBC super-middleweight boss Richie Woodhall], current British and Commonwealth champions, former European champions and the Second City scrapper who engaged in 300 professional contests, Peter Buckley, have all confirmed they'll be attendance.
In all, there's likely to be over 100 current and former professional boxers in attendance, along with darts personality Chris Mason and recent London 2012 Paralympic bronze medallist Zoe Robinson.
"This is the least we could do for someone like Andrew," said 'Fleetwood Assassin' Couch, the fearless Bristolian who boxed in Birmingham [at The ICC] in 2006 and who was awarded an MBE by the Queen for her ground-breaking and trail-blazing services to female boxing in Britain.
"Even after he'd been diagnosed with cancer and even after he'd come home from draining sessions of chemo, Andrew still found the time to go online and help up-and-coming boxers with home-made posters - which meant they could sell more tickets.
"The work he's done for them has not gone unnoticed and unappreciated by anyone.
"So it's come as little surprise that the support from the boxing community has been absolutely phenomenal," she continued.
"It just shows how highly-regarded he is for boxers to come from all over to put their weight behind this fundraiser and we all hope that he'll come out with his arm raised after his toughest fight."
