Meet the inspiring women being taught by Team GB boxer after surviving domestic abuse

Lesley Sackey knows first hand that the path to surviving domestice violence is a rocky one.

The Team GB boxer is a gold-medal winner and now, she is teaching women how to fight back after surviving domestic abuse by getting them in the ring.

The 42-year-old founded Fight Forward, a not-for-profit organisation which uses boxing as a tool to help women heal from trauma.

The inspiring women who attend her class have suffered horrific ordeals at the hands of their abusers, with some requiring hospital treatment as a result of their injuries.

Lesley founded the group in in 2022 and so far 20 women have been through the programme to step into the ring and over 100 women have attended boxing sessions. 

She says she is at the start of her mission to help 100,000 women to take part in Fight Forward and that the age range of participants is anything from 21 to over 60.

Express.co.uk spoke to Lesley and three of the women who have attended her classes.

Yurdal Mohammad, 41, who has been attending the classes for 10 weeks, said: “I was eventually hospitalised with the violence that was portrayed towards me and I’m only just coming into myself again, and feeling safe, grounded and empowered.”

Saria Alireza, 38, has also bravely stepped into the ring with Lesley, she added: “I learnt from these boxing classes that there’s always time for you to take back your power and fight for yourself.”

Antonia Lee-Wilmott, known as Amja, 49, said: “I didn’t know at the time that I was in a domestically abusive relationship, but I knew that something wasn’t right.”

The inspiring women shared their stories and told of how Lesley’s boxing classes and fight nights have helped them to feel empowered again.

‘I was in a very violent relationship’

Yurdal has attended Lesley’s classes held at All Stars Boxing Gym in Westminster, central London.

She told the Express: “I was in a very violent relationship. The abuse started off very emotional and mental before it became physical.”

Yurdal suffered from fourth degree burns to her body as a result of domestic violence and was admitted to hospital.

She initially struggled with the idea of hitting anyone, an inherent part of the sport but something she associated with her past, but she said Lesley’s classes supported her and helped her feel empowered.

She added: “The sessions were very structured, very professionally and carefully put together. I felt that each week we got fitter, closer and more confident.

“I do feel like I’ve got my power back because I really lost myself in that relationship. I wasn’t as vivacious as I am now. 

“There was a lot of mental and emotional struggle that we all had to deal with on this journey but we chose to get in the ring and that shows a lot of courage.

“I hope our story inspires anyone else going through domestic violence and lets them know that there is a sisterhood here because there’s a massive community here that we have built. And I hope the new year gives everyone a catalyst to want to be better within themselves so they can feel like warriors –  as we do.”

Team GB boxer Lesley Sackey – ‘I felt like I was in survival mode’

Lesley has also experienced an abusive relationship and has channelled her passion for boxing into helping to empower other women.

She said: “After leaving the relationship, I felt like I was in a survival mode and I really wanted to connect with feeling strong and empowered again – boxing was the first thing that came to mind.”

Lesley told the Express about the moment she decided to set up Fight Forward, she said: “I want to use boxing as a tool to help women and I realised because of my own journey that getting into the ring is a powerful way to help shift trauma to help reclaim a voice.

“My main goal is to create a safe environment to allow whatever needs to come out. There’s so much research to show trauma lives in the body and so it takes something rigorous and you know big to shift that and so boxing is a great tool for that.

“By the time you get to the ring you feel like your baggage feels a little bit lighter. I can see the reasons why people say ‘Why would you want to put women who’ve experienced abuse into a potentially harmful situation?’ but it’s so much deeper than that.

“It’s the training, it’s the journey, it’s about consent these women are choosing for themselves which is powerful because they’re deciding and they’re learning from that process.”

Lesley hopes women who have experienced domestic abusive find a support network, she said: “What a gift safety is – it can come in so many forms, it’s about peace, physical safety, emotional safety and to be able to navigate any situation without knowing that you’re going to get harmful response. I hope survivors will create a support network community like what we have here.”

She is aiming to expand her programme and is currently looking for a new gym space to host Fight Forward sessions.

‘I was waking up in the middle of the night with flashbacks’

Saria Alireza is another of the women attending Lesley’s boxing events. She has now been training with Lesley for eight years and recently took part in a Fight Forward Fight Night.

During the 12 week training camp, Saria felt that it was reminding her a lot of her past, she said: “There were moments in which I was waking up in the middle of the night with flashbacks, and it sort of in a way forced me to address it and face it straight on. 

“Having the support there was so important for me, there was a moment in sparring where I literally burst into tears in the ring and Lesley supported me.”

She told Express.co.uk that she feared for her child’s safety and after a moment of realisation she decided she had came to the “end point” and knew she needed to protect herself and her child.

Saria said she was never able to deal with the trauma of domestic violence until she began taking Sackey’s boxing classes but she now feels able to fight for herself.

‘My experience of abuse was more coercive and emotional’

Antonia Lee-Wilmott, known as Amja also attended the classes, she has also experienced domestic abuse.

Today, she is an ambassador for Women’s Trust, a specialist mental health charity for women who’ve experienced domestic abuse.

She said: “I didn’t know I was in a domestically abusive relationship because my experience of abuse was more coercive and emotional. 

“So while you’re living in that environment, you don’t realise it or you’re not able to label it, particularly because we live in a world where we’re encouraged to think of domestic abuse as physical violence, as a form of physical violence.”

Around three months after she left the relationship, Antonia believes she was being stalked and recalls a time when someone threw a hot substance onto her face one night while on her way home from work.

She said: “After leaving, I just felt like I’m so unsafe, I didn’t know who to trust.”

After starting Lesley’s boxing classes, she said: “I was taken aback by how emotional I felt. We had a sparring session in the ring, and the first hit I got, I was just stunned. 

“I couldn’t move, I was overwhelmed by it, and I didn’t realise how emotional I was going to feel. 

“I began to really understand how this was not just about the physical technique of boxing but it was also about release of emotion. It was a really good, really great experience.”

Going into 2025, Antonia said she hopes more women will feel empowered to leave abusive relationships.

She added: “When you’re somebody who’s been in a domestically abusive relationship, your autonomy is taken away from you. As the new year has only just began, I would say to anyone in an abusive relationship, give yourself permission to take it back.”