{"id":95773,"date":"2025-08-27T07:02:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T07:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/95773\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T07:02:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T07:02:08","slug":"exeter-church-boxing-classes-helping-with-personal-battles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/95773\/","title":{"rendered":"Exeter church boxing classes helping with personal battles"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Danks<\/p>\n

BBC News, Devon<\/p>\n

\"BBCBBC<\/p>\n

Ben Cookson (left) said he has not touched drugs or alcohol since he first went to Exeter’s St David’s Church four years ago<\/p>\n

A former homeless man who “smashed his life to bits” said church and boxing have turned his life around.<\/p>\n

Ben Cookson runs free boxing fitness classes – known as Fitter for Faith sessions – every Wednesday at St David’s Church in Exeter.<\/p>\n

The 50-year-old became homeless after turning to drugs in his mid-30s when he lost his business, but said he had overcome addiction after going to the church for the first time four years ago.<\/p>\n

He said he used boxing sessions at the church to reach out to people battling addiction and break down barriers.<\/p>\n

Mr Cookson said: “People don’t openly want to talk to a random stranger about their trauma, or the shame or guilt they might carry.<\/p>\n

“What the boxing does is it that it builds a relationship, and then when I share some of my experience with people they really open up.”<\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/p>\n

Ben Cookson said he “smashed his life to bits” after turning to cocaine in his mid-30s<\/p>\n

Mr Cookson, who has run the Fitter for Faith at the church for two years, said the church and the boxing sessions had a positive impact on people, including himself.<\/p>\n

“The recession came [after the 2008 financial crash], I lost my house, my business, my family and in my mid-30s, I turned to cocaine for the first time,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I basically went on a 10-year bender and just smashed my life to bits and ended up homeless.<\/p>\n

“Since the day I came to church, I’ve never touched drugs or alcohol \u2013 that’s four years.”<\/p>\n

The vicar at St David’s Church, Reverend Mike Clark, said there was “no judgement” of people attending the fitness sessions and people could explore faith if they wanted to.<\/p>\n

“I just think it’s amazing what Ben is doing bringing in such a variety of people,” Mr Clark said.<\/p>\n

“Boxing is not something I’d have ever thought about doing in a church but I can see how it enables him to connect with people.”<\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/p>\n

The Fitter for Faith classes are also for people who want to improve their health<\/p>\n

Along with people fighting addiction, the Fitter for Faith sessions are also open to those who want to improve their health.<\/p>\n

Moira Dale, 74, attends the classes regularly and said doing boxing made her “feel good”.<\/p>\n

“If it’s doing that for me, what is it doing for these other young people,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It’s teaching them discipline, control, and everything else like that. It’s just the best thing.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Danks BBC News, Devon BBC Ben Cookson (left) said he has not touched drugs or alcohol since…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-95773","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}