Positive News · 10 hours ago

The women’s Boxing Nights Helping Abuse Survivors - Positive News

For women who have survived domestic abuse, the boxing gym might seem like the last place to find healing - but at 12×3 in east London, it has become exactly that. Former Team GB boxer Lesley Sackey founded Fight Forward to offer free classes to survivors, and the transformation she witnesses goes deeper than fitness: as coach Shelly Sweeney describes it, women who arrive with curved shoulders and downcast eyes gradually become the ones starting conversations, their chins lifted. The initiative has now spawned Fight Back Promotions, a venture turning ticketed all-female fight nights into sustainable funding for more free places on the programme. What the women themselves articulate is striking - participant Amja draws a sharp distinction between violence endured and violence chosen: "This is a consensual environment. It's controlled, you have choice... In a violent situation, you have no choice, and your autonomy is taken away from you." For Saria, who credits the programme with saving her life, stepping into the ring on fight night carries a meaning that has nothing to do with her opponent: "It's about fighting for me, because I am worth fighting for."