The owner of a boxing club for all ages in Oban wants to grow her business with the support of the community.
Susannah McMillan, 33, is working with dozens of children, young people and adults to build their confidence and fitness, and she wants to find a permanent boxing space the Argyll town.
Since she set up her business just before lockdown she has worked with hundreds of people from the area.
A permanent space for Oban Boxing Fitness
Ms McMillan, a former Navy medic, swapped the high seas for her hometown – and has seen her business Oban Boxing Fitness grow.
But, because accommodation in the town is at a premium, she is struggling to find a permanent boxing space she can work out of.
Due to the large numbers of people who are taking classes with her, she knows a space would benefit not only club users, but those who want to work on their mental and physical fitness.
She said: “Ideally I would love to find a business partner who can work with me to help secure affordable premises.
“The work we are doing is incredible. And it is really changing people’s lives.”
Explaining that boxing is about teamwork and about respecting your body, the former Oban High School pupil is passionate about the benefits of the sport.
She said: “Boxing is all about you as an individual, and you as a member of a team.
“You need to be self-disciplined to compete, you need to set goals and achieve them. You need to work on your inner strength.
“You need to go to bed early, you need to get up early to train, you need to look at your diet to get to the weight you need to be for your competition, you need to control every muscle in your body.
“You need to be emotionally and psychologically fit to even spar with your partner – because this is about your whole body being in the place to win,” she continued.
Ms McMillan works with 60 children from as young as primary one. She says those classes are about building up the confidence of youngsters.
Learning to succeed
She wants to take the young adults she works with to competitions across Scotland – she wants to see them succeed.
Believing a permanent space would go some way to get boxers from Oban onto the national scene, she is looking to find a business partner to increase the work the club can do.
She said: “I have been working away on my own. I can not keep up with everything I would like to do, and having a partner would help us to grow the business.”
Turning to the wider impact the club could have on the town, she said was willing to offer support to anyone who needed it.
“There are many social problems in Oban that have an impact on families here. One of those issues is drugs – and how we support people who want to move away from using them.
“I know for many people being on a programme with me can, and will, turn someone’s life around. Boxing increases the production of endorphins. That gives you a natural high.
“I want to invite anyone that is struggling with drug use to come to me, and we will see how we can help.”
And it is not just classes that would go on, as part of the club’s activities. Ms McMillan would like to bring Oban’s first-ever boxing show.
She said: “It would be amazing to bring competitive boxing to the town. There are venues in the town that would be able to host it – and I believe there would be a big audience.”
Conversation