Age is just a number: 71-year-old’s inspiring journey to the boxing ring
Lyn Mills is on a mission to get match fit and strip 10kg in preparation for the fight.
by Janine Hill
Never give up on your dreams, Charlie Watere tells the boxers at OneHeart boxing gym, because they might just come true. And that looks like happening for one of his special boxers.
At 71, Lyn Mills, of Nambour, is preparing for her first competitive fight.
Lyn has been training at One Heart for almost four years but a dearth of female boxers in her age group means she has never been able to get a competition fight.
When Charlie saw a Masters boxing post looking for an opponent for a 62-year-old female boxer to fight against, he put to it Lyn.
“Charlie said, ‘What do you think?’ and I said, ‘It’s worth a go’,” Lyn said.
“I think they like the idea that I’m an older female that’s in the same situation.
“It’s a little bit ‘oh my God’ but it’s exciting at the same time, and I’m excited for the lady I’m up against. This has been her dream to have a fight, too.”
Lyn will get into the ring for three 90 second rounds at Ferntree Gully on 25 November but there is some work to be done first.
Having eased back on her fitness regime while helping her husband through illness, she is now on a mission to get match fit and strip 10kg.
“I’m training hard and I need to get a bit of weight off. With everything that’s been happening in our lives, I’ve put a bit of weight on,” she said.
“Charlie is training me harder than usual and I’m starting to ramp my running up a bit and doing all the usual things, changing my eating habits, so no more cakes and biscuits.
“I’m on the straight and healthy food.”
A week after downing her last donut, Lyn had peeled off 1.5kg and is enjoying getting fit again.
Lyn fought an exhibition match at the PanPacific Masters last year but Charlie is schooling her up for her first real, competitive fight.
“He wants me to punch harder. When I got into the ring, I naturally did it. It’s different to being here, training with teenagers,” she said.
“When you get into a ring with someone you don’t know, you don’t know their technique or style or anything, and I think the excitement of it all – you challenge yourself for something that you don’t know.
Lyn, who works in the Bloomhill op shop at Nambour, said the feedback to a previous Gazette story about her journey to the PanPacifics was great.
“I had so many older ladies come into the shop and say it inspired them to get out and not necessarily do boxing but do some sort of activity,” she said.
“When you get to a certain age, everybody thinks life has passed them by … but it hasn’t, it’s still there to grab.
“It’s still there to enjoy and go out and do something constructive.”