Athletes supported by Lancaster entrepreneur come 14th overall at World Championships

This would have positioned them above France, Germany, Greece, and Poland in the medal table.

The Lancaster-based Barrie Wells Trust has supported many world-class athletes, and his funded athletes have gone from strength to strength.

Katarina Johnson-Thompson claimed her second World Championships heptathlon gold in Budapest, which made her once again the best all round female athlete on the planet.

Barrie and The Kat have been close friends since she was just 15, when he began sponsoring her with transport funding and ongoing training and competition costs.

Since then, Barrie has supported her through the great highs and lows of her fabulous sporting career.

In 2010, he flew to Barcelona with her and her mum to watch the European Championships during a bad injury spell to keep her morale high. After her first World Championship win in Doha, she recovered from a ruptured Achilles in 2020 and then had to withdraw from the first day of the Tokyo Olympics due to injury.

She has been a pillar in Barrie’s life too, attending his honorary university doctorate and joining him at the prestigious British Sports Journalists award last December where Barrie was presented with the Chairman’s Award.

She is also Patron of Barrie’s charity, the Barrie Wells Trust, and supports the trust’s Box4Kids initiative, whereby seriously ill and disabled children attend VIP events.

“The Kat is a fabulous talent and has always there to support me as well,” said Barrie. “I’m so proud to have been on her journey since she was 15. The Kat’s story is an incredible one, and it’s definitely not finished

yet.”

Keely Hodgkinson, whom Barrie has also supported, won a magnificent silver in the 800m final. At just 21 years old, this was Keely’s third global silver medal.

Keely is also a key figure in Barrie’s life, and an active ambassador for the trust.

The Barrie Wells Trust is a Dalton Square-based charitable organisation founded and funded by financial services entrepreneur Barrie Wells MBE.

Barrie Wells sponsored 18 Olympic athletes leading up to the London 2012 Olympic Games including Jess Ennis, Beth Tweddle and Katarina Johnson-Thompson and more recently 2021 Olympic 800m silver medallist, Keely Hodgkinson.

Box4Kids was established in 2010 when Barrie Wells purchased an executive box at Anfield exclusively for seriously ill and disabled children to enjoy a VIP experience from the comfort of an executive box, which is still used to this day for the same cause.

Through collaboration with clubs, venues and companies, Box4Kids now spans 12 different sports and operates in more than 100 major sport and entertainment venues across the UK.

Alongside his commendable work with Box4Kids, Barrie is hugely passionate about the pleasure of philanthropy.

He is currently looking to persuade more high net worth individuals, like himself, to discover the sheer joy of giving to a cause close to their hearts, whether that be donating an executive box to the Box4Kids initiative or supporting their own charitable endeavours.