Take a ring-side look at Hope Centre Northampton's newest boxing initiative entering its second week

A new boxing programme involving Northampton Hope Centre has entered its second week, with “very positive” results for physical and mental health, according to the CEO.

Hosted by Team Shoe Box, the programme sees people join intensely physical hour-long boxing sessions designed to take their minds off daily struggles and make them feel better overall.

Alex Le Guevel, a key member of Team Shoe Box and club support officer for England Boxing in the East Midlands, said that the programme has expanded markedly since its original proposal with the help of sports trust. With everyone getting their own gloves, wraps and more, it is hoped the programme, which is set to run for at least the next year, will keep helping people improve their physical and mental health, with a small chance that one or two could become professional.

He said: “Originally, it was proposed as [people from] the Hope Centre coming to our gym for a few sessions, but I thought we could do something bigger with it. I got in touch with a colleague at Maverick Stars who I had worked with on similar projects in Leicester and asked if we could get the funding to expand those sessions to run for over a year. She said yes and it was as simple as applying for the funds.

"It’s all about getting the benefits of sports and specifically boxing, like fitness and mental health, but also the discipline and respect aspects. Like, one guy who’s attended was recently released from prison and had some anger management issues which lead to him becoming homeless. So this is a way for him to learn that discipline.

"It’s also physically challenging, so the focus is not on whatever stress there is, but rather on getting through the session.”

According to Alex, some of Northampton’s best fighters have also taken part in the sessions, inspiring some attendees to improve even more. They included:

Eithan James – Fighting on Frank Warren’s Telford show on April 16 Ben Vaughan – Fighting on MTK Global’s Essex show on April 30 Kieron Conway – Signed with Matchroom Boxing and currently recovering from hand surgery

Robin Burgess, the CEO of Northampton Hope Centre, said: “It’s a nice little project that’s gone down really well. We provide all kinds of things for the people we work with, whether that’s to do with drugs, mental health, illness or just general isolation.

"The people who go into this are part of a programme of support at Hope which can include diversion activities, fun activities or character-building.

"People on this programme are referred to Hope either through homelessness or by their councillor. GPs are also increasingly prescribing physical activity as part of ‘social prescribing’, where they try exercises rather than drugs.

"I’ve never personally done it, but all the people who have done it say that it’s really good for physically getting out what they can’t normally express, like getting a lot of tension out of their systems. People are telling me ‘I get a real buzz from doing this’ and they wait for it from one week to the next.”

While the programme is only funded for a year, both organisations agree they will try to keep it going.