Swimming champ beat the bullies

New drive against school bullying

A Paralympic gold medallist has spoken about how he overcame bullies as a youngster to become a champion swimmer.

Welsh swimmer David Roberts said he hoped he could be an inspiration to young people who were bullied.

Roberts, 28, from Pontypridd, and Welsh soap star Garnon Davies who is in Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks, spoke out against bullies at an event in London.

It is anti-bullying week, which aims to raise awareness about children who are bullied for being different.

Roberts said swimming was a way of coping with bullying.

"Sport was something they couldn't bully me about because I was better than them," he said.

He said his former bullies even now wanted to be friends with him on social network website Facebook.

Roberts, who has cerebral palsy, won four gold medals at this year's Beijing Paralympics.

I was bullied quite severely when I was younger and it's one of the worst things a young person can go through Actor Garnon Davies

Davies, 25, who plays Elliot in Hollyoaks, grew up in Porthcawl, where he said he suffered mental and physical abuse from his peers up to his mid-teens.

"I was bullied quite severely when I was younger and it's one of the worst things a young person can go through," he said.

"I was always interested in different things like singing and acting so I was seen as being different.

"Children who are being bullied need to tell someone about it and get support."

The two stars were joined by UK schools secretary Ed Balls at the event to mark the launch of anti-bullying week.

Mr Balls said he had seen "huge change" in the approach used to tackle the problem of bullying.

"When I was at school 25 to 30 years ago, we knew that bullying happened but we never really talked about it ever, we tended to ignore it," he said.

"If you watch it and pretend not to notice it you are actively taking part in it."

The campaign is being run by the Anti-Bullying Alliance, a coalition of 60 organisations, including the NSPCC, Barnardo's and ChildLine, working together to tackle the problem.

The Welsh Assembly Government has also organised events to mark anti-bullying week including a competition for older pupils to write a spoof news item about bullying.