The making of a medallist

When I first saw Cindy Ngamba she was a nervous teenager, hovering about on the pavement outside Bolton Lads and Girls Club wondering whether to come in. I was a youth worker there and when I spotted her, hesitant and a little anxious, I invited her in and reassured her that this was a place where all young people were welcome.

This week, 12 years later, I watched Cindy become the first-ever member of the Refugee Team to win an Olympic medal. She will be returning home to north west England with a bronze from the women’s 75kg.

I couldn’t be more proud of her journey and what she’s achieved, and I also couldn’t be prouder of how youth clubs and youth workers have supported her along the way.

Watching her win her quarter-final bout against sixth seed Davina Michel by unanimous decision on Sunday, was like a fairytale. Cindy succeeded in that fight as she has through life – by using her strength of character and taking advantage of opportunities.

When this reserved young woman first came to BLGC she hadn’t long arrived in the country. She first came at 11 years old, from Cameroon, having travelled with her brother to join her family in Bolton. She didn’t speak much English and she was very shy.

A big part of being a youth worker is helping the young people we see to open up, try new experiences and build their confidence. Straight away we could see Cindy’s eyes light up at the sport on offer.

She tried badminton, then started playing football with our women’s team but soon dismissed it as “too girly”. Then she discovered BLGC’s boxing room.

Our legendary boxing coach Dave Langhorn said to her: “Come back tomorrow.” When she did, he told her to do 10 press-ups, 10 sit-ups and three minutes of skipping.

Cindy says: “Every day I’d think: “Today’s the day I’m going to put the gloves on,” but it never was. I realised he was trying to challenge me, trying to see if I’d quit.” She pushed harder because that’s what she always does.

Eventually, Dave let her start on the pads and in the ring. He and sports manager Nick Raynor took her under their wing. Nick told me: “She’s a raw talent.”

They spent such long hours crafting and engineering her skill that Cindy developed a Bolton twang as well as a powerful left hook. Recognising her commitment, they entered her for development championship fights run by English Boxing, using BLGC’s minibus to travel all over the country and celebrating Cindy’s wins with a full English breakfast the morning after.

But it wasn’t just boxing that BLGC was there for. Cindy is an ambitious young woman who wants to do her best in every area of her life. We helped her to write her CV and applications for college and university. She graduated from Bolton University with a degree in criminology.

I knew she had the makings of a mentor and encouraged her to become one of our young sports leaders, setting up sessions for our younger members and being a role model to them. “Leon, I’m bricking it,” she whispered to me when faced with a gaggle of eight-year-olds in the club’s sports hall. I burst out laughing – she’s fearless in the ring but these kids had her on the ropes.

Seeing Cindy become the confident, articulate and passionate person she is now is one of the proudest moments of my career. She even works with me at weekends at another Youth Zone in our network in Blackburn. She tells me that youth workers gave her so much and now she wants to give something back.

It was always Cindy’s dream to qualify for the Olympics. She trains with GB Boxing but has been denied a British visa for years because of paperwork issues. As a gay woman, she would face a jail sentence if she returned to Cameroon. So she proudly represented the Refugee Olympic Team in Paris.

I suspect that now Team GB will want her in their ranks for the Los Angeles Olympics in 2024.

Every four years this celebration of sport opens young people’s eyes to the range of sports available to them. Cindy is an elite athlete with incredible talent and an outstanding work ethic who has taken every advantage of the opportunities that opened up to her.

But the sad reality is not every young person has a safe, accessible environment where they can develop their talent. The young people I work with every day want to be active, but they face significant barriers.

PE hours in schools are being squeezed – more than 40,000 hours have been lost from the curriculum since 2012 – and our own research at OnSide shows that 1.3m young people had to give up out-of-school activities last year due to cost, with sports and fitness the most likely to go.

Heartbreakingly, young people told us much-loved clubs like football or gymnastics have been sacrificed in the cost of living crisis. Parents can’t afford bus fares or petrol to get their kids there, let alone pay the subs or for kit.

But as Cindy proves and continues to prove with the young people she volunteers with, there is an untapped solution to this issue in the heart of our communities – youth centres.

BLGC and Blackburn Youth Zone are both part of the OnSide network; 15 brilliant youth clubs, known as Youth Zones, built in the most disadvantaged parts of the country, equipped with excellent facilities and staffed by dedicated and trained youth workers.

Youth Zones cost just 50p to enter, and we waive that cost for those who can’t afford it.

Across the OnSide network we provide an enormous 120,000 hours of sport for young people every year – that’s equivalent to 42% of all the PE taught in secondary schools in England.

Every Youth Zone has a climbing wall, a dance studio, football pitches and a sports hall. Funding comes from local authorities but also local philanthropists and businesses who recognise the importance of investing in young people.

Every day I see young people making new friends and developing the skills that are essential to thrive in life, like leadership, teamwork and communication, by taking part in sport.

Another six Youth Zones are set to open in the next 18 months, but that’s just the start of OnSide’s mission. We want every child in every town or city in the country to have access to excellent youth workers and fun, fulfilling activities outside of school.

The first day that Cindy walked into Bolton Lads and Girls Club I had no idea where her journey would end, but I knew that, like every young person who comes through our doors, we would help her to unlock her true potential.

On Sunday we had 150 young people in Blackburn Youth Zone watching Cindy’s quarter-final bout, all cheering for their local hero. They see Cindy as a role model and they couldn’t have a better one.

Leon Crosby is director of operations at OnSide’s Blackburn Youth Zone.