Catching up with the BBC Get Inspired 2016 Unsung Hero Award winner

It’s a year since Marcellus Baz won the BBC Get Inspired 2016 Unsung Hero Award for his work setting up the Nottingham School of Boxing. To mark the beginning of this year’s search for an Unsung Hero, we asked Marcellus to reflect on his experiences.

It’s impossible to put into words how it felt to win the Unsung Hero award. It was a really surreal moment for me. It was incredible to get such recognition as I never imagined I’d achieve that kind of success. It was really humbling to see that the efforts that I and the team around me had put in were recognised at such a prestigious ceremony. I celebrated with my family, friends and various community groups I’m part of. Winning that award would not have been possible without the support they gave me, so really it was a celebration of the hard work we all put in.

I set up Nottingham School of Boxing in 2013 to create a safe place for people to gain confidence through boxing and use the skills, knowledge and discipline they learn to thrive in the real world. It’s a place where people, regardless of boxing ability, can be part of a warm and friendly environment while keeping fit.

When I was 23, I was stabbed through the hand by a rival gang member, ending my hopes of a pro boxing career. I became a gym instructor instead and I soon noticed that a lot of the people coming to me were from a similar background to me. I started to mentor them and link them up with organisations that could help.

I first started running the boxing club on a voluntary basis, after taking over a disused sports hall. Some of the people who train at the club come from really difficult places and have been through things you can’t even imagine. When they’re in a safe environment, they have the opportunity to escape and express themselves in a way they don’t have to vocalise. We now teach far more than boxing skills and offer a support network for those who might not have one at home. Nottingham School of Boxing only takes up a part of our work – we also deliver a program called Switch-Up.

Switch-Up is more about personal mentoring and life skills. Fundamentally it’s there to help kids get into work and open doors to opportunities they might never have had. I started that because of the place I came from – I wanted to help people as a way of giving back to the community. There were people who inspired me when I was in a really dark place following the knife attack that cut short my boxing career. I want to help people who are going through tough experiences and show them positive pathways into employment, training and education.

More than 800 people now attend the boxing school through the Switch-Up programme. I’ve seen people come into the school that have been totally written off, but today they are different people. The family we have created are there for each other and I’ve watched people grow in such a positive way. We aim to help young people thrive and go on and achieve their full potential in life. Then, at the other end of the spectrum, we have amateur boxers who compete at the highest of levels in the UK. It’s a special place and I would like to think that we help to make a difference for everyone, no matter what their circumstances are.

The young people who train with us were very proud when I received the Unsung Hero award, but I wanted to stress that it wasn’t just for me, it was for them too. Without the people who use our gym it wouldn’t be anything more than an idea. I am so grateful to them for helping create a thriving boxing gym full of inspirational people.

The impact of the award has been incredible to say the least. Obviously, it helped raise the profile of the work we do and has opened so many doors for the club. It’s given me the chance to meet some of my heroes and some incredible people from the boxing world have now come to our gym to meet and train our boxers. We have the backing of some amazing people in sport like Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, Johnny Nelson, Herol Graham and Anthony Joshua, to name a few.

I’ve also had the opportunity to go to new places like Denmark, Norway, Brazil and Los Angeles and speak at conferences about youth violence. I did an interview in LA for a radio station which turned out to be Stevie Wonder’s radio station! I got a call after the show saying he really loved my interview and I ended up going to his birthday party that night.

I wouldn’t say that I have a life motto, but one thing I find myself saying a lot is ‘What you put into something is what you get back’. I tell the people who train with us that if they believe in themselves and commit to something, no matter how big or small, they really can achieve their dreams. It’s important that we help them to realise no matter what their background is or how hard life gets, there are people to help them get through it and help them change for the better.

Sport is about so much more than winning, taking part or keeping fit; it’s a way of expressing yourself and feeling a sense of achievement through adversity.

Marcellus Baz won the Unsung Hero Award in 2016.

• Nominations open for this year’s Unsung Hero Award at 06:00 on Wednesday 6 September until 23:59 on Sunday 22 October. See the BBC Sport website for details on how to nominate your Unsung Hero
• Find out more about BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2017