Boxer Charlie Flynn in ‘early Christmas post’ call

Boxer Charlie Flynn is urging people to give posties a helping hand by posting cards and presents early. Picture: Hemedia

The 21-year-old postal worker will not be in the sorting office over the next month as he prepares for his first professional fight but he was at the Glasgow distribution centre today to encourage people to get posting cards and presents early to spread the festive mail rush.

The service is gearing up for the period when millions of items are sent across the country and extra staff and sorting offices have been set up across the UK to deal with demand.

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Sporting a black eye from sparring, Flynn repeated the words from a famous interview he gave immediately after becoming the Commonwealth Games lightweight champion.

He said: “Aye, the mailman always delivers, but folk can help out.

“It’s just a matter of making sure you get the postcode right, you get the full postcode and you post it early, ‘cos you don’t want to give my mates at the Royal Mail a hard time trying to configure what’s going where.”

The key dates this year for deliveries before Christmas are December 18 for second-class and December 20 for first-class items.

• Interview: Charlie Flynn, Glasgow 2014 boxer and medallist

Flynn has been given extended leave to prepare for his bout on December 14 and is grateful to his employer for the support.

“I love working here at Christmas time, all the Christmas songs are on and all these people are jumping about with Santa hats on, it’s a good laugh.

“It’s busy, busy, busy, but the work always gets done, it’s good.

“I’m not going to be in here literally at all this year ‘cos of my fight. I’ll be in every now and then but the next few weeks I’ll have my head down in training, dieting and getting everything done.

“The Royal Mail are good with me, give me all the time off and all the support I need, which is amazing.

“In the long run I’ll need to focus on boxing if I’m going to make a career out of it.

“I need to be full-time training, full-time sparring, everything will need to revolve around the boxing and I think the Mail will understand it and I think everyone will understand that.

“I want to go places and put Scotland on the map and be up in the world, so one day I’ll need to sack the job and get the hard training on the go.”

All that the boxer wants for Christmas is a victory in his professional debut in front of around 1,000 fans at the Thistle Hotel in Glasgow.

• Commonwealth Games: ‘Finest hour’ for Scots boxing

His lively performances and interviews made him one of the home stars of Glasgow 2014 but Flynn was not disappointed to miss out on a nomination for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

The 21-year-old does not even know who is on the list as he has been too busy preparing for his fight, which is being staged on the same night as the BBC event.

But when asked if he thinks he will be a nominee in the future, he laughed and said: “Aye, maybe, we’ll see what happens.”

• Commonwealth Games boxing: Flynn, Taylor win gold

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