Keith Jefferies celebrates his 88th birthday and he still spends three nights a week training boxers at Cwmbran Boxing Club.

He’s done this every week since he first opened his gym on the Northville estate in the town 52 years ago.

Cwmbran Life popped in his gym this week to do a story on five of his boxers raising £1,100 to send a group of young people with extra needs on a residential weekend. After the photo and interviews, we stood by the ring chatting as a dozen of his boxers skipped on the spot around us.  I asked him how old he was. He laughed and said: “Eighty-eight. Well, I am on Friday.”

I did a video interview with Keith in March 2018. That was almost five and a half years ago. Nothing has changed in that time. He still opens the gym three nights a week and takes his boxers to shows across the country to compete. Look out for a story on Cwmbran Life over the next week about his recent long weekend trip to Torquay where three of his boxers fought in a tournament.

I asked him how it feels to still be running a gym after all these years and he told me: “It’s fab. I just love being with my boxers. It’s great. I have a wonderful wife, Maureen, and without her, I could not do it. We’ve been together 66 years and loved them all.”

I’ve got to declare an interest. The first time I met Keith was in 1994 and he was in the corner of the ring with a boxer named Alan who I was about to fight in the Gwent Novices Championships. It was a three-round bout but after two rounds the referee rightly decided my opponent, was too strong for me and stopped it. I walked over and tapped gloves with Alan and Keith to say “well done” I can’t believe that 29 years after he tapped my gloves, Keith is still turning out top-quality boxers.

Have a great day today!

Watch a video of Keith Jefferies in 2018

Cwmbran Life recorded this video interview with Keith in March 2018 when he was 82.