Hordle mum Katie Parris fights Ultra White Collar Boxing match for Steps charity at the Bournemouth International Centre (BIC).

A Hordle mum trained hard for eight weeks before stepping into the squared circle at the Bournemouth International Centre (BIC) to box for a charity close to her heart.

Former Arnewood pupil Katie Parris, a mum of three, pulled on some gloves, ready to fight three hard rounds for Steps, a charity working for those whose lives are affected by childhood lower limb conditions.

In June 2021, Parris’s son Kade was born with talipes – known as clubfoot, a congenital or acquired condition where one or both feet are rotated inward and downward – in his left foot.

The charitable pugilist said: “I recently went to watch a family member take part in a boxing event to raise money for charity, and I thought to myself ‘I want to do that!’.

“So that’s what I did. I signed up for UWCB (Ultra White Collar Boxing), which involved eight weeks of intense training. It involved skipping, press-ups, sit-ups, burpees, jogging, sprints, footwork, and learning the types of punches and how to move your body.

“Each training session was an hour long, and the hardest hour I ever put my body through. I’ve never sweat so much as I did in the training sessions.”

The match consisted of three rounds lasting two minutes each. The referee called the fight off halfway through the second round because her opponent threw a punch to the back of the head, an illegal and dangerous manoeuvre in boxing.

She added: “There’s a lot more to boxing than just throwing a punch; there’s lots of footwork to learn, ways to move and types of punches and where to use their punches on the body.

“After the eight weeks of training, we were matched with our opponents and then had a black tie event for fight night at Bournemouth BIC in front of over 1,900 people.”

Kade started treatment at five weeks old, consisting of casting, having his Achilles tendons cut, and specialist boots, while he is currently in a daily splint.

Kade’s treatment has faced multiple complications, and the youngster still has a few years of treatment ahead of him, but the family takes each day as it comes.

The 34-year-old continued: “With Kade having clubfoot, we found an amazing charity called Steps, which Kade has been a part of, so I decided to give boxing a go and raise money for this amazing charity.”

So far, she has raised £500. To donate, visit shorturl.at/KGqKb