{"id":264730,"date":"2025-07-14T17:01:17","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T17:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/264730\/"},"modified":"2025-07-14T17:01:17","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T17:01:17","slug":"interview-dad-to-open-new-morecambe-gym-to-honour-teenage-son-after-tragic-road-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/264730\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW: Dad to open new Morecambe gym to honour teenage son after tragic road death"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/
\n Leo and Lee Mountain<\/p>\n

\n The father of a teenage boxing champion who died in a road accident will open a new gym to keep his son’s memory alive.\n <\/p>\n

Lee Mountain has spoken to Beyond Radio about his plans to honour his son Leo with a new facility in the Westgate area of Morecambe.<\/p>\n

Leo died after being hit by an HGV on the Bay Gateway in the early hours of Sunday, April 20.<\/p>\n

The 18-year-old North West boxing champion was a skilled and popular amateur boxer at the Coastal boxing club in the town.<\/p>\n

“When Leo passed, I said we needed two things to happen,” said Lee.<\/p>\n

“I need his name to continue and I need something good to come from the tragedy.”<\/p>\n

So Lee is setting up a new gym on Whitefield Place, which he hopes will help other people who – like Leo – may have encountered tough times.<\/p>\n

Lee explained how, through his love of combat sports, Leo overcame challenges in his life to become a champion.<\/p>\n

LISTEN to our interview with Lee Mountain<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

“In Year 7 of high school, Leo started to change,” said Lee.<\/p>\n

“He was more insular. Eventually he was brave and explained he was being bullied at school.<\/p>\n

“As a parent, it’s awful. You feel so helpless.<\/p>\n

“Leo told us he was starting to self-harm.<\/p>\n

“So we took him to Shay Walsh’s MMA gym on Skerton and got him into combat sports.<\/p>\n

“He kept on working and he progressed, until he was sparring with men when he was 13\/14.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Just before lockdown we went to Scotland to a kick boxing competition and he won that.<\/p>\n

“He would have been a cage fighter, but a month or so before he was due to have his first cage fight, he announced he wanted to be a boxer.<\/p>\n

“We went to Coastal Boxing Gym and he absolutely loved it. Leo held his own, straightaway.<\/p>\n

“He had numerous fights, then the year before last he won the Manchester Box Cup and last year, he won the under 60 kilo North West Title.<\/p>\n

“It was a fabulous day.<\/p>\n

“Boxing was his life. He wanted to go professional. It meant everything to him. Boxing changed his life, from having low esteem and being bullied.<\/p>\n

“I was so so proud. I was in his corner and so so thankful that Leo allowed me to go on this journey with him. It was a special journey.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

When Leo died, the community rallied round to raise money in his memory.<\/p>\n

“After he passed, the boxing community and local community and some of our friends, wanted to do something,” said Lee.<\/p>\n

“(Boxing coach and referee) Steve Tallo-Brady set up a gofundme page, I’ll be honest, I wasn’t convinced. I nearly told him, no thank you.<\/p>\n

“Steve was just being nice and saying it was for the funeral. I thought, no, I can do that, I can pay for my own son’s funeral.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“But something inside me stopped and I said no. If people want to donate some money, we can try to do something good with it.<\/p>\n

“We were lucky enough to raise around \u00a310,000. I spoke to Leo’s kick boxing coach Kris and said if we set something up, shall we do it together in Leo’s memory.<\/p>\n

“So we rented a building. We’ve got a plan, for a matted area where we can do the lessons, a weights area and a cardio area.<\/p>\n

“I want to try to keep Leo’s name current. I want him to live on longer than me.<\/p>\n

“And I want something good to happen. Whether you’re getting bullied or depressed, come down. I can’t say I’ll fix you, but I’ll try.<\/p>\n

“Everybody is welcome. I’m wanting an inclusive gym, whether you’re young or old. Come down, have a train, we’ll have a laugh, and I want it to be a community like things used to be, where everyone looked out for each other.<\/p>\n

Below, Lee Mountain inside the unit where he will open the new gym.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

“We’re going to have a community wall for people who have helped us, try and give something back.<\/p>\n

“There will be a lot of pictures of Leo.”<\/p>\n

Work is currently taking place to get the gym ready, and Lee is aiming for a late July\/early August opening – with a community open day to launch the new venture.<\/p>\n

The gym, at Unit 3A Whitefield Place, Morecambe,\u00a0will be for kick boxing and boxing training primarily but with scope for other activities in future.<\/p>\n

Lee thanked everyone who has supported Leo’s family after their heartbreaking loss.<\/p>\n

“The support that we got with messages, on Facebook and people coming to the house, it was lovely.<\/p>\n

“And people putting their hand in their pocket, not really knowing where the money was going to go, was phenomenal.<\/p>\n

“I’m so thankful for people’s generosity.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leo and Lee Mountain The father of a teenage boxing champion who died in a road accident will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264731,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4108],"tags":[27017,27018,27015,27016,1935,27021,1804,27019,3462,3611,27020,27022,269,27024,9440,27025,79,27023,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-264730","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-103-5fm","9":"tag-107-5fm","10":"tag-beyond","11":"tag-beyond-radio","12":"tag-boxing","13":"tag-carnforth","14":"tag-lancashire","15":"tag-lancaster","16":"tag-local","17":"tag-local-news","18":"tag-morecambe","19":"tag-morecambe-bay","20":"tag-music","21":"tag-north-lancashire","22":"tag-radio","23":"tag-south-cumbria","24":"tag-sports","25":"tag-station","26":"tag-uk","27":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}