A family night in at his Cheltenham home back in the 1980s helped shape Lee Kent’s life forever.

“I can remember it like it was yesterday,” says the now 49-year-old.

“I was lying on the floor under the Christmas tree watching Bruce Lee on TV in Enter the Dragon.

“Bruce Lee was brilliant and I thought, 'I’ll have a bit of that’.”

And have a bit of that Lee most certainly did because in 1987, while he was still in his mid-teens, he set up what is known today as the Chi Wai Family Martial Arts Centre, a thriving going concern that boasts 200-plus members.

It is based in Kingsville Road, Kingsditch, Cheltenham – they moved there in 2007 – and, at the time of writing, the club had 210 members.

“Most of them are in the three-and-a-half to 12 years age group,” explained Lee. “We’ve got 20 to 25 adults and a similar number aged 12 to 16.”

But what pleases Lee even more is the number of women and girls who are part of the group.

“I’d say about 40 per cent are female,” he told The Local Answer. “That’s really important because we want to be inclusive for all.

“My oldest student is in her 70s. You don’t have to be super-fit or be able to do a thousand press-ups, just come and train and you will progress.”

So what exactly is Chi Wai martial art?

“Chi Wai is Mandarin for self-defence,” said Lee, who is known at the club as Sifu which in turn is Mandarin for father figure.

“It’s a western system because it’s mine and it was born to promote self-defence. I enjoy teaching self-defence.”

And when you talk to him it’s easy to see why Lee, who runs Chi Wai Family Martial Arts with his wife Lisa – their two daughters Bethany and Sophie also trained there when they were younger – is so passionate about self-defence.

“When I was growing up I was bullied,” he said. “It was mainly mental but sometimes it would be physical, it was tough.

“That’s why we do the self-defence training, I want to spare everyone the heartache of what I went through.”

Happily, the heartache has turned to joy for Lee over the years as his club has gone from strength to strength – they kept going during the lockdowns through zoom calls – and he is keen to stress that the club is not just for those experiencing a tough time.

“Not at all,” he said, “we’re open for everyone. We’re not a club that stands still, we’re always evolving, growing, tweaking.

“It’s not just the physical side of self-defence, it’s the mental health side as well. We work on self-esteem and self-respect and having respect for others.

“It’s about building your self-worth and improving confidence.”

And it clearly worked for former Arle School pupil Lee.

“I was weak mentally when I was younger,” he said. “If anyone said anything to me, I would just take it.

“Looking back I probably was depressed. Martial arts was my way out.”

It certainly was and while self-defence is a huge part of what the club offers, there is more to it than that.

“We teach kickboxing and Filipino Martial Arts such as Eskrima and Jeet Kune Do, as well as putting on social events,” said Lee. “We run family kickboxing classes so that the adults and children can do it together.

“But we’re not a competitive club, we’re not here to earn trophies.”

Every success story is worth a lot more than a trophy to Lee and his up to 10-strong team of instructors of course.

And the one time amateur boxer – he was a Bournemouth area champion back in his teens when fighting out of Grosvenor Boxing Club in Cheltenham – has big plans for the future.

“We want to establish satellite schools around Gloucestershire,” explained Lee.

“We’ve set up an LTA – a Leadership Training Academy – which gives youngsters at the club extra training in team building and communication skills.

“We’ve got 22 on the LTA team and the hope is that that they can go out into the satellite schools.”

It’s fair to say that Lee has come a long way since that night all those years ago when watching Bruce Lee on the telly.

But while he has gone far in his professional life, he has not travelled so far when it comes to his domestic arrangements because he still lives in the same road in Hester’s Way that he lived in when he was a child.

“I live 20 doors away from where I used to live and my wife lived 20 doors the other way,” he laughed, “we met in the middle!”