I don’t know how old I am. We came to the UK from Somalia as war refugees, so there’s no official record of my birth. And we were poor, so my sister increased my age so I could start school early and get free school meals. Officially I’m 34. I’ve got a date of birth on my passport. But I don’t know if it’s the right one.
I remember playing on the swings and a little girl coming up and talking in English. I didn’t understand anything she was saying. But that’s the beauty of children. We became friends without even talking.
My mum signed me up to the gym, but for a long time she didn’t know I was doing boxing training. I remember thinking: I can’t tell her. She removed us from danger, now I’m putting myself back into it. My mum was never allowed to go to school. She always wanted us to get good grades, be top of the class, “because that will open so many doors in the future,” she said. I thought she’d think of boxing as a distraction from schoolwork. So I just kept it a secret.
It was my husband who encouraged me to dream. We started dating and got married, and a few months later I asked him to coach me. He’s taken a step back now – we were having a lot of arguments in the gym. Understandably, he’d say, “How do you think it feels seeing the person you love being hit?” You can’t be a boxer and not get hit. It’s like being a swimmer who doesn’t want to get wet.
You’ll have the best training session of your life and think: “Wow, I’m unstoppable.” And then you’ll have the worst training of your life and think you’re no good.
I’ve been to loads of photoshoots with a black eye. The time I was on the cover of British Vogue with 15 women, I’m the only one facing sideways – to hide a black eye.
Funnily enough, I hate watching sports. There’s only a few I do like to watch, like athletics, and women’s football, like supporting the Lionesses.
Sometimes as an athlete you go through immense levels of stress, which is horrible. I recently started developing alopecia – bald patches where my hair was falling out. I’m managing it now with natural home remedies and my hair is thicker than ever.
I created an organisation called Sisters Club in 2018. It provides free sports classes to ethnic and religious minorities and women who have suffered from domestic violence and abuse. We have four boxing classes in London, one in New York, as well as basketball and football. My goal is for Sisters Club to become a worldwide thing for vulnerable women to gain free access to sport. I’ll be making sure these classes remain free from now until eternity.
I still haven’t achieved everything I want. I wanted to go to the Olympics, then I did. My goal now is to become a world champion. I’m not saying kids hold you back, but I want to achieve everything I can with boxing and then give all my time and effort to my kids.
