An east Belfast woman has urged people to remember nothing is impossible after becoming the first wheelchair user in Northern Ireland to gain boxing coach qualifications.
Kelly McMillan, who is in her 40s, found her love of the sport initially through her father.
“I’ve loved boxing for as long as I can remember, because my daddy got me into it,” she explained.
“He loved watching all the greats, like Muhammad Ali and Sonny Liston. I used to love sitting watching it with him and I just fell in love with it too.
“Obviously, because of my disability, I thought ‘well, I’d never be able to do that’.
“But, nothing is impossible and all it needs is a bit of adaption.”
Kelly was born with spina bifida, which is a defect that affects her spine.
Whilst she could manage a degree of walking throughout her life, she has been wheelchair-bound since the pandemic hit in 2020.
“I suffer with sciatica sometimes too, and I just sat down in the wheelchair and never got back up,” she added.
“I heard about adaptive boxing and knew that this is what I was going to do; better late than never.”
Kelly gained her Level One Fundamentals in Boxing Coaching through the Irish Athletic Boxing Association (IABA) earlier this year.
She has now launched adaptive boxing classes, every Thursday from 7-8pm, at the City of Belfast Boxing Academy (CBBA), just off Templemore Avenue in the east of the city.
Kelly is now qualified to teach others in padwork and the fundamentals of boxing training
Her goal is to give everyone in a wheelchair the ‘opportunity’ to have a go at a sport they might otherwise not try, but she also wants to push for wheelchair boxing to become more competitive here.
“Northern Ireland isn’t very good at moving forward with things, shall we say,” she continued.
“When you say ‘adaptive boxing’, some people just shy away and say, ‘no, you can’t do that — you can’t have two disabled people hitting each other’.
“It is a recognised sport in other countries. I actually want to get adaptive boxing into the Paralympics, as at the minute obviously it’s not, but for anyone who wants to come to our Thursday classes – they don’t have to fight or have a bout if they don’t want to.
“Although eventually, I’d like to get enough people involved to take part in exhibition bouts.
“Just come along. If you feel like you can join in, that’s OK. If you don’t want to, you can relax and watch the session, and come back again the next week too.”
Boxing is currently excluded from the Paralympic Games as it is considered too difficult to codify, but in 2016, an Adaptive Boxing Organisation (ABO) fight night took place in Warwickshire.
The first competitive event of its kind for wheelchair and amputee boxers, participants travelled from as far afield as Italy and Brazil to be involved, and that’s the future Kelly wants for Northern Ireland too.
Kelly McMillan at CBBA
She praised the other experienced coaches at CBBA, who will be helping to facilitate her Thursday classes, and urged people to come along for the social side of it as well.
“The guys here have been brilliant to me, and in any sport — yes you’re coming together to do that sport, but you’re also trying to get out of the house and make new friends. To be honest, a lot of disabled people just don’t have many friends, because they’re so isolated.
“The club is completely wheelchair accessible, including a ground-floor disabled toilet.
“You can shadow box, or have a go on the boxing bag or pads with us.”
For now, Kelly is opening the classes to wheelchair users aged 16 and over.
“Every disability has a difference, and different abilities, and at the minute I just know that we are qualified to coach those also in wheelchairs.
“Just come along, you won’t regret it. It’s brilliant for fitness and your mental health as well — and we’ll have a laugh.”
For more info, contact City of Belfast Boxing Academy on Facebook, Instagram or via email [email protected]