It’s the stink of the gym Cindy Ngamba remembers best. Sweat, leather and bleach. It was like nothing she had ever smelled, and she loved it. She was 15, and had just finished football training when she saw these boys come into the changing rooms at her youth club. They were steaming in the heat and it looked, to her, like they were on fire. She was curious, walked past them through the door and saw more of them, some working heavy bags, some fighting shadows, some sparring in a ring. It was the first time she had ever seen anyone box. “And I said to myself, right then: ‘This, this is what I want to do.’”
She asked the old man running the place if she could join in with the next session. Ngamba, who was born in Cameroon, had been in England for only four years. She was still learning English. She was shy, she was overweight and she was being bullied at school because of her size, the way she spoke and because she didn’t know what deodorant was.
