Bricklayer wins taekwondo gold in memory of late wife

A bricklayer has become a veteran taekwondo champion just months after losing his wife.

Andy Smith, 41, from Edinburgh, won gold at the ITFU UK championships in Cannock, near Birmingham.

The father-of-two, who has a second degree black belt, said he forced himself through the grief to compete because it was his late wife's dream.

"I was fraught with nerves but I put myself through it because I know Kera would have wanted me to," he said.

He added: "It was very hard, the anxiety of it. She was my biggest fan and was my inspiration for taking up taekwondo 10 years ago.

"She wanted me to be a champion and I took up the sport to impress her.

"She wanted it so much for me and I felt she was there during my fights, I couldn't have done it if she wasn't."

Kera was 37 when she died from lung cancer on 5 September with her two daughters, Hayley, 17, and Amber, 12, by her side at East Ayrshire Hospice.

Andy, who was with Kera for 18 years, said his wife had been a very anxious person so when she woke up one night unable to breathe he told her to go to the doctor.

"I noticed she was getting out of breath on the stairs in our house and then when she woke up one night struggling to breathe I was worried.

"I had remembered seeing the uncle who had lung cancer in the Sopranos unable to breathe when he walked up stairs so it rang a bell and I thought she should get a scan."

Kera was diagnosed with lung cancer in October 2022.

"She was a beautiful person who would help anyone. If anybody deserved help it was her," Andy said.

Andy, who trains with Elite Taekwondo Edinburgh, was colour belt world champion in 2015 and black belt world champion in 2017.

However, the Covid lockdowns stopped him competing and after moving to Glasgow he could not afford to travel to competitions around the world.

But he recently started training again in his bedroom. He also went out running and trained with a punch bag and a torso.

He entered the championship when he discovered it was being held in Cannock near Birmingham - where Kera was from.

"I kept going back and forward in my mind wondering if I should do it it or not.

"She has family down there and my daughter and I decided to go and stayed with her sister for the championship.

"But it was still raw and it wasn't normal being there without Kera so I couldn't sleep the night before. She was really on my mind and there was too much time to think. I was two minutes from running away."

However, Andy was determined to compete in honour of his late wife.

He fought his matches last Sunday with a Scotland flag with her name on it tied around his arm.

Andy said: "She made it all possible when I was training to fight in the early days. She never complained if I went to training or when I was getting up at 5am before work to lift weights.

"She wanted me to be a champion and knew how to drive and push me. She saw more in me than I did and I would try to live up to it. When someone believes in you wholeheartedly it makes you capable of anything."

Andy said he had been brought up in a tough neighbourhood in Edinburgh and always had to watch his back.

"So when I met nice people in the taekwondo club and made friends throughout the world it changed my life.

"My club is like my family now and they have helped me so much through this very tough time. They put their arms around me."

Master Stuart Dutton, vice-president of Elite Taekwondo Scotland, said: "I have never seen Andy fight like this, it was his best fight ever.

"He has shown incredible resilience and determination to become champion at this time. It's incredible to see.

"I didn't know how to approach it, how to help him tackle this so I went with my instinct and told him to think about his wife during the fight and to think she was his coach and that she was there with him.

"I told him you have the best coach in the world if you have her with you.

"He was shaking with fear and anger, there was a lot going on in his mind, but against all odds he won gold and became champion."

Now Andy plans to enter the world championships in Croatia in October.

"Winning was brilliant but I wasn't able to enjoy it because she wasn't there," he added.

"I can't imagine living my life without her. We were a team who would take on the world together."