When Jagdeep Singh Aujla was diagnosed with Parkinson’s at London’s National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in June 2021, he felt scared and anxious for the future.
“I had a little cry on a bench in Queen’s Square. It took a month to feel normal again, even though I’ve always been a positive person.”
Just three years later, he is welcoming dozens of people with the condition through the door to his non-combat boxing class at the IRDSA Hall in Ilford. It is one of only two boxing classes for people with Parkinson’s in London and, in his words, a way for people from all backgrounds with the condition to “come together”.
“Parkinson’s doesn’t discriminate. We have people from every background coming to this class. That is my passion, to bring people from different communities together. Some of these people spend their life sitting at home and tell me that this is the highlight of their week.”
Studies have shown that exercise has significant benefits for people with Parkinson’s, which affects more than 153,000 people in the UK. Non-contact boxing helps to maintain strength, flexibility and balance while also providing a space to meet new people and socialise at a time when many with the condition report feeling acute social isolation.
Parkinson’s UK, which provides funding for the classes, has warned that people with the condition face barriers to exercise such as limited access to transport and the cost of a gym membership.
Jagdeep, 55, has been passionate about fitness for most of his life and recently trekked 150 miles across Nepal. He previously climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in east Africa with his daughter, Japleen, in seven days in 2022, raising £10,000 for Parkinson’s UK.
“Doing exercise was the best advice that my consultant ever gave me,” he says. “I thought boxing would suit me as I have been teaching martial arts for 35 years. So I started the class in November 2022 and it’s been going from strength to strength ever since.”
Jagdeep certainly puts the class through their paces: they begin with a light warm up before moving onto a more intense cardio circuit. Attendees are encouraged only to exercise at a pace that they feel comfortable with and take regular breaks.
In the second half of the two-hour session, Jagdeep brings out the boxing gloves and the group split into pairs for a sparring session. Nearly everyone in the room has a smile on their face.
“This is as good a medication as you can be described,” one attendee says. “It just loosens things up.”
“I felt so good after the first session,” another tells me. “Within two weeks of joining, I had bought my own boxing gloves. I thought ‘Wow I can actually do this’.”
The boxing class is one of several schemes being funded by Parkinson’s UK, which launched its Physical Activity Grants programme in 2021. It has since awarded more than £554,000 in funding to 242 active projects across the UK.
Jagdeep hopes that more non-contact boxing classes will open across London to allow more people with Parkinson’s the opportunity to let off steam and make new friends.
“As a Sikh, I want to help others and believe doing that is just as important as helping yourself. Some of these people would have never exercised in their lives, now here they are every week.”
After two hours, the crowd filing out of the hall into the mild November afternoon is a sea of sore muscles and beaming faces.
“This is what it’s about,” Jagdeep says. “If I only change one person’s life then that is good enough for me. Any more than that would be a bonus.”
