Sophie boxes clever for cancer charity

Sophie, from Fulbeck, represented Team GB at the 2012 games in London and 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, but now 24, she has been retired from competition for two years and is due to start work as a teaching assistant in a local school.

A few months ago she started running Boxercise classes in her home village hall on Tuesday evenings and will be starting another class in Sleaford’s Northgate Sports Hall on April 20, 7-8pm.

Prior to that she will be holding a three hour Boxercise session on April 16, 12-3pm, in the sports hall to raise money and awareness of ovarian cancer.

She explained: “Both my gran and my aunty have suffered from that sort of thing and I jumped at the opportunity to combine the two as Ovarian Cancer Support is Boxercise’s chosen charity.”

She has a Justgiving web page set up for donations at: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Box2Beat-OvarianCancer

Sophie did boxing and Boxercise three or four times a week as part of her swimming training and she will still do some exercise every day. She said: “We have five or six signed up already.

“A normal class would be one hour so three hours will be pretty hard core but it will be for all abilities and you can work at your own pace,” she said. “When I was training I would do three hours exercise quite regularly, but have not done that for a while. It is a full-body work out,” she said.

People can take a five minute breather but the aim is to keep going for as much of the time as possible. “I still miss competing but it is exciting to be doing something new.”

Sophie has recruited several sponsors and there will be prizes on the day of the event.