Companies help former boxer give free school uniforms away
HELPING HAND: From left, Tommy Coyle, Ben Davis-Rice and Rachel Swingler with some of the volunteers who turned out to distribute free school uniforms
By Rick Lyon, Co-Editor
Boxer turned businessman Tommy Coyle had other firms from across Hull in his corner for the latest round of his fight to help families beat the cost-of-living crisis.
MKM Building Supplies, Transwaste, MS3 and Reach Recruitment were among the companies to make donations which enabled Tommy and his team to snap up school uniform items at a discount from Asda.
The businesses also supplied volunteers to help with the distribution of the clothing to grateful families who praised all involved in the project as they queued patiently around North Point Shopping Centre in Bransholme, waiting for their turn to enter a vacant unit which is due to become a new gym.
One mum told how a school blazer for her child will cost £35. Another said she can expect to pay around £100 for a primary school uniform for her child. She added: “Every year we find we are cutting back on food shopping to buy school uniforms so this is a really big help for us.”
Tommy, who now runs his own health and wellbeing business, launched the school uniform project in 2020, initially to help families struggling with the cost of Covid.
He said: “The message we got was that it made a big difference. Covid is still affecting a lot of people and now there are all sorts of other issues.
“There has never been a good time to stop so we kept going. The need is still there and I’m really grateful to all the businesses that are helping.”
The project was given extra momentum in June 2022 when Tommy’s father, Chris Coyle, died suddenly just weeks before his 60th birthday. Tommy revealed that Chris would have been 62 on the date of this year’s giveaway and was inspired as a child when he was given his first PE kit by John Buttrick, a former teacher who founded Hull Children’s University.
SUPPORT: Some of the volunteers emptying boxes and sorting the contents ready for the school uniform giveaway
“If John hadn’t done that my dad wouldn’t have been able to take part in PE and fall in love with sport, and maybe in turn that’s why we fell in love with sport,” said Tommy, a Commonwealth lightweight champion whose brothers are Hull City players Lewie and Rocco and professional golf coach Joe.
“The school uniforms giveaway isn’t just about making sure local children look smart for school – it’s about giving them a good start in life, building their confidence to follow their dreams whether that’s in sport, business or anything else.”
Rachel Swingler, recruitment director at Reach Recruitment, said meticulous planning and a late dash to the shops were behind the success of this year’s giveaway.
She said: “I wanted to bring more organisation to it this year and also try to do it on a larger scale so I did quite a lot of research into poverty levels and identified that in Hull there are 10,000 children living in poverty. Nationally the rate is 29 per cent and here it’s 35 per cent.
“I also contacted all the primary schools in the city to find out about their uniform items, what sort of things the children wear and what colours. We used Go Fund Me and social media to raise money. We targeted £10,000 and with all the contributions including from other businesses we raised £11,300.
“Asda agreed a 10 per cent discount which mean our money went further. We went out the week before and bought all the items, sorted them, took the price tags off, boxed them and got some PE bags for people to put their items in. We also had clothing cards so we were able to log what people needed before they were called to collect their order. We thought we could help about 250 children but we did about 450 in the end.
“We gave out over 2,700 units to start with and then we went out and bought more stock during the event and gave that away as well. We ‘sold out’ in two and a half hours. It was very intensive but went very smoothly and hopefully that will enable us to get more businesses on board next time!”
Ben Davis-Rice, managing director of Reach Recruitment, added: “It’s the third year we’ve been involved and we do it because we want to support Tommy with the great work he does for the community. We can deliver more by working with him than we can on our own.
“Education is really important and especially over the last couple of years people have had to choose between heating their homes, feeding their families, and buying school uniforms is another big expense. It can become a barrier to education and if we can remove it people can better themselves. The feedback is always really positive and families really appreciate it.”