Boxing clever businesses needed to help boost children with diabetes

Rotherham Hospital and Community Charity is working with Unity Boxing Centre to offer sessions for youngsters cared for by the Children and Young People's Diabetes Team at Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust.

Approximately 16 children and young people are newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes each year in Rotherham, with the CYPD team currently caring for 126 children aged 0-19 years old, 118 of which have type 1 diabetes.

The idea to work with Unity Boxing Centre in Rawmarsh was spearheaded by Rebecca Davis, a paediatric diabetes family support worker, at the trust.

She said: “We talk to lots of parents and teachers who tell us that activity sessions are really useful to help boost the confidence and mental health of children with diabetes, especially if it’s a new diagnosis.

“That’s what inspired me to seek charity funding and to set up boxing sessions at Unity.

“The team at Unity Boxing are so community orientated – it’s the perfect partnership and we’d love to have a sponsor so we can continue the sessions in future.”

Diabetes is a lifelong condition that causes a person’s blood glucose, or sugar, level to become too high.

Type 1 diabetes can develop at any age, but usually appears before the age of 40 and particularly in childhood.

Daisy Riley, (12), of Greasborough, has been attending the sessions after being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes aged nine.

Mum Kelly Fox said: “It’s a great experience for her because she can see how exercise impacts her levels and how to deal with that.

“Parents like me are close by but she has a sense of independence and it makes her happy.

“She’s the only girl in the group, but she doesn’t let that hold her back.”

Rachel Hunt’s son Cooper, age seven, from Whiston, said of his experience of the sessions at Unity: “I hope that because Cooper can see others wearing their type 1 medical devices that it normalises the condition even more for him.

“It’s also nice for us to speak to other parents about their experiences too – it benefits all three of us.

“We’ve loved it!”

A programme of six 45-minute sessions at Unity Boxing Centre, run by director and coach Abdul Majid, costs £660 for up to ten children.

Rachael Dawes, head of fundraising Rotherham Hospital and Community Charity, said: “We fund some incredible things at the charity and this is a great example of how the money you donate can have a powerful impact on the young patients we care for.

“We’d love to continue to fund the boxing sessions for other youngsters to benefit from again in future.

“We can’t do that without your generosity and hope that a local business or community group will help sponsor them.

“It would be a great way to support children with diabetes from Rotherham and beyond at such a crucial time in their lives.”