Family of popular Hexham boxer call for more safety measures after his death

The brother of a Hexham boxer, who died after a fight in Doncaster, wants the sport to be safer so no-one has go through the pain his family have.

31 year old Scott Westgarth collapsed in the changing room after his English title eliminator against Dec Spelman back in February.

Now, his brother Adam's set up a petition calling for every boxing club to have hand-held brain scanners so they can pick up brain injuries.

He's told us he wants something good to come from his brother's death:

"If I could have him back, I'd have him back tomorrow. I'd swap places with him - he wasn't just my brother, he was my best friend. I'm just trying to follow the path he would want me to go on and just make sure this doesn't happen again.

"The type of person Scott was, he's built his own legacy but I want to follow that through. By that I mean trying to change for the better the sport of boxing in his name because that's what he wanted so families like my family and previous families don't have to go through this."

We don't yet know why Scott - who trained in South Yorkshire - died. His family are waiting for the findings of a coroner.

But Adam says something needs to be done now to make prevent future tragedies:

"There's the argument that these things don't work all the time but what I've read is they're 90% accurate. By using these things, if you save 9 out of 10 lives, if you diagnose an injury from an early stage 9 out of 10 times, surely 9 is better than none.

"I'm not trying to wrap boxers up in cotton wool. There's no humour in this - this is a serious matter. I'm not trying to damage the sport of boxing, what I am trying to do is put some safeguards in place for future fighters."

After his death, tributes poured in online to the boxer. His dad called him 'unique' and 'perfect'.

You can sign Adam's petition here.