Perth city kickboxer's gym dream to give back to community

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A champion Perth kickboxer has launched an appeal to establish a gym to give something back to the North Muirton community where he grew up.Nathan Bartlett, who holds a number of British and Scottish kickboxing titles, has set up a Go Fund Me page for Partizan Gym which he hopes will operate out of premises in Argyll Road.The 31-year-old kickboxing black belt recently stepped back from competitions after becoming a father for the first time.He lives in North Muirton with wife Amy and their son Rémy – who was born one week after Nathan won his British Full Contact Kickboxing title on September 30 this year.Nathan works for a Perthshire timber merchant, but wants to continue involvement with kickboxing through Partizan Gym which has been running since March out of a Perth gym.He said: “I retired from competing and have just became a father for the first time, so I have got that wonderful responsibility.“However, I also want to continue being part of this sport that I love, and setting up the gym in North Muirton gives me that opportunity.“It’s a way of giving something back to the sport.“But as we near the final hurdles of opening, we’re unfortunately running desperately low of funds to pay for our architecture costs and planning application to finally be able to open our doors.“Any donation, no matter how big or small, would be enormously helpful and hugely appreciated.”Partizan Gym currently has around 30 members.

As of this week £1,862 was raised towards a target of £2000.Nathan, who is helped by his 40-year-old brother Shaun for the project, added: “The classes became extremely popular in a short matter of time, so moving to our own premises makes sense.“And where else would be better than the turf where we grew up on?