North West Fire Solutions is more than just a Birkenhead-based fire safety consultancy — it’s a business that’s never forgotten its roots.
It’s a business that wants to create unprecedented opportunities for young people in the Wirral. In doing so, it hopes to build a brighter future for the community.
Neil Oxton, co-founder and director of North West Fire Solutions, epitomises the company’s relentless pursuit of local enrichment.
Neil helps train people aged 8 to 30 up to four days a week at the Birkenhead Venture Amateur Boxing Club. These people are all from the Wirral area, and Neil’s number one goal is to improve their health and self-confidence.
Neil and North West Fire Solutions also sponsor two professional boxers and a number of Wirral-based youth football teams, including Birkenhead Youth and Poulton U16s Youth.
The ‘why’ behind Neil’s work
Neil said: “I’ve been working with the local community in some shape or form since 2007.
Doing this fills me with enormous pride. It’s incredibly rewarding when you work with someone who has health or self-esteem issues from a young age and can train them into an athlete.
I provide a safe space for people to express themselves and improve their discipline, which ultimately helps them get the results they want.
Boxing training gives young people the accountability and work ethnic they need to succeed in life. We don’t just train successful athletes — we train successful human beings. We give them a sense of purpose they may otherwise have lacked.
I never cease to enjoy this activity and being able to give back to the community, whether it’s through boxing training or football sponsorship.”
The view from inside the ring
One of the successful athletes Neil and North West Fire Solutions has worked with is professional boxer Ste Clarke, 23, who has a fight coming up against Jack Catterall at the Co-op Live Arena in Manchester on October 26.
Ste, a middleweight who has a 4-0 record at the time of writing, said:
“I met Neil at Birkenhead Venture a few years ago. We kept in touch, and I started training with him. Since then, he’s played a massive role in helping me progress in my boxing career.
He’s funded part of my training and helped me with monthly sponsorships, and this support has helped me go to the next level.”
Ste recently won the National Amateur Championships and became Senior National ABA Champion, which allowed him to turn professional. He currently trains twice a day, five days a week at the and once on a Saturday.
He continued: “I’m on a break at the moment, and then I go straight into an eight-week camp before the fight.
I’m made up to be on such a big card like that in the first boxing event at the new arena. It’s thanks to Neil and North West Fire Solutions that I’ve been able to get to this point.
The work Neil does helps not just me but other kids in the local area to set goals for where they want to get to in life and achieve those goals.”
The other professional boxer to be sponsored by Neil and North West Fire Solutions is Ben Burnham, a middleweight from Birkenhead who has been professional for several years and boasts a 6-0 record at the time of writing.
Ben said:
“Neil and North West Fire solutions helped me out while I was fighting professionally with a sponsorship.
This sponsorship was massive for me, and I’m very grateful to Neil and the team for allowing me to continue doing what I love.”
The club owner’s perspective
Sean Trodden, Owner and Head PRO-AM Boxing Coach at Birkenhead Venture, is someone who’s seen and done it all over the years, having first boxed for the club back in 1987.
He’s known Neil since he was a child and trains with him four to five times a week.
Sean said:
“Neil is a close friend and fellow boxer who I’ve got a huge amount of respect for. When I first met him, he was just one of the kids in the gym, and then when I stopped boxing, I used to go and watch him box.
I had a close relationship with his dad, God rest his soul, who used to do painting and decorating for me. We were all part of a security firm, so we all had a really tight-knit relationship.
Now Neil is a colleague at the boxing club I run, and I’ve seen him become a business owner.
To see him progress from a kid I trained with in the gym to someone who’s capable of standing on his own two feet and leading the way is impressive, and I’m really pleased for him.
The work he’s doing is absolutely fantastic. It requires a lot of commitment, consistency, and sacrifice, but when you see people from the club win national titles, it makes that sacrifice worthwhile. Each and every year we win titles, and it’s down to the coaching team we’ve got.
There are some people who come in, and they’re scared to look at their own reflection in the mirror. But training at the gym does wonders for their confidence. We make good citizens out of them.”
Togetherness is the cornerstone of Birkenhead Venture and is the key to its sustained success, explained Sean.
He continued:
“We recently went back to the basics of how a boxing club should be run. For example, you have to be in the club three nights a week if you want to be considered for sparring.
We had to make some tough decisions along the way. The people who didn’t buy into our ethos left the club, but now we’ve got a team that’s there for each other and works for each other.
It’s a well-oiled machine and Neil is a big part of that. We’ve always had success, but this time it’s taken us to the next level.”
Interested in joining Birkenhead Venture?
Email info@nwfiresolutions.co.uk.