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Boxing club saved me when drugs tore my family apart

BBC Billy Ramsay looks into the camera while standing in a boxing club - a punch bag can be seen blurred in the background. Billy has a bald head, a ginger beard and moustache and is wearing a black hoodie.BBC
Boxing gave Billy Ramsay a focus when his family was devastated by drugs

Billy Ramsay joined the Lochee boxing club when he was 12 years old - around two years before his big sister died from a drugs overdose, age 17.

Shortly afterwards, his mother - who also struggled with drugs - was given a jail sentence.

His family was falling apart, but Billy found boxing helped "block everything out" at a time when he desperately needed stability.

"At weekends I'd be going to boxing shows on a Friday and a Saturday, travelling all over Scotland - and all of my friends were on the streets drinking and taking drugs and causing trouble," he said.

Now age 34 and working as a joiner, Billy firmly believes the club saved him.

It helped him make friends, gave him a place to go after a hard day at school and made him feel part of the club family.

"This was where I came, I was here all the time," he said.

"I could have went either way - my whole family was rife with drugs. I'm the only person that's actually working now.

"When you come back and tell people about your successes, you feel good about yourself, because you're actually doing something with your life."

Boys and girls boxing in Lochee Boys and Girls Club
Club leaders describe the gym as the 'heart of Lochee'

Lochee Boys and Girls Club has been training young boxers in Dundee since 1946 - organisers say they have seen many children like Billy come through their doors.

The city is in the grips of a drugs crisis and has among the highest drug death rates in Scotland, second only to Glasgow.

Lochee, in the west of Dundee, also has one of the most deprived communities in the country - a factor that means people are far more likely to die from drug misuse than in affluent areas.

The problems are very familiar to club leader Derek Lynch, who has boxed in Lochee for 70 years - having joined the gym at just five years old.

Derek Lynch looks into the camera smiling while sitting in a boxing club, which is blurred in the background. He is wearing a black hoodie that says 'Team Lochee' in white writing. He is balding with white hair.
Derek Lynch joined Lochee Boxing Club when he was just five years old - he now runs it

He has coached hundreds of the area's young people - many from deprived households - and wants to make sure the sport stays accessible to them.

"If they can't afford the fees, we'll pay them for them," he said. "We don't want them on street corners or anything like that getting into trouble.

"Discipline in the boxing is great and every one of our boxers has respect for authority."

In recent years the club has turned out talented athletes, including Commonwealth gold medallist Sam Hickey.

Demand is growing, but the small gym hall cannot always accommodate those who want to join in and staff have had to turn people away as a last resort.

The club's successes and challenges were the subject of a recent short documentary by filmmaker Scott Dee.

Meanwhile Derek has launched a fundraising campaign to extend the hall, in order to keep the club at the "heart of Lochee".

Speaking to Reporting Scotland: News at Seven, he recalled one night where an old member whom he hadn't seen in ten years paid the club a visit - just an hour after his wife had given birth to their baby girl.

Elated, the man wanted to share his news with Derek - and the club that was once so important to him.

Derek said: "That's the thanks you get for what you do."