A bad case of mistaken identity

Some of you may have heard that my Olympic boxing team-mate, Bradley Saunders, was arrested this week on suspicion of dealing in Class A drugs.

A couple of national newspapers ran articles on the story but due to a mistake they printed a picture of me, rather than Bradley.

As you'd imagine I'm fuming and all my family are devastated about it.

Bradley is denying the allegations but there's absolutely no question of me being involved in any way and I just want to make that absolutely clear to everyone. I've got a good image through all the work I've done for charity, especially since I got back from the Olympics. I just want people to know it's got absolutely nothing to do with me.

It's not so bad for the people in Sunderland and Newcastle who know me, it's the people down south I'm more worried about. There will be people who don't know my name but who saw me box at the Olympics. Some of them will have seen the picture in the papers and thought, 'I know him'.

I'm taking legal advice but what I want most is an apology from the newspapers concerned. I just want to make sure people realise it isn't me involved in all this.
It's a pity because the night before I'd had a really good evening when I received a North East Sporting Achievement Award at a fund-raising dinner for the Glenn McCrory Foundation.

It was good to be there to support a charity which does so much for under-privileged children in Newcastle and an honour to receive the award. There were three of us who got awards on the night - Jackie Charlton, Alan Shearer and me - so it's great to be associated with people of that calibre. Even though he's a Geordie, Alan Shearer is a legend of the North East.

I'm really proud to be from the North East so to get recognition from your own region means more to me than any national award. I've had so much support from the people of the North East recently and it's why I'm so keen to make my professional boxing debut here.

I'm looking to turn pro within the next week. Getting the right team around me is important and I've already set my sights on a debut up here, probably in February. I've only fought once in the North East in the last six or seven years so I'd love to fight at Newcastle Arena, or the Stadium of Light one summer.