Lady boxer changes life after injury Training youth in boxing helps with confidence, job skills: Kamal

Anthony Marcusa –

Before she started a charity for at-risk kids, Miranda Jollymore Kamal was already an active person: she was a single woman, a table tennis player, a mortgage broker and a competitive boxer. But it was the time she spent in pain from a ruptured disk in her back that changed her life and forged a new path.

“I had a disc in my back that started to bulge, and later it exploded,” explained the 35-year-old, who is now married to Ibrahim Kamal, the eight-time Canadian Boxing Champion. “It basically took a year of my life away—you can’t carry your own groceries, you can’t do your hair. I was an athlete, a boxer.”

Kamal suffered her sudden back injury in May 2008 but couldn’t see a surgeon until June 2009. By that time it had become an emergency. She had an MRI at 6:30 a.m. and was in surgery four hours later.

With her activity restricted during recovery, Kamal had an auspicious meeting with Youth Assisting Youth. The charity was seeking to begin a boxing program to bring children together with local police. “They were working together,” said Kamal, who lives at Queens Quay and Bathurst. “The police came as teammates; we’re trying to build relationships with schools to try to prevent crime. I started to realize we’re making an impact in people’s lives.”

Kamal continued her work with at-risk children and last October she founded Mentoring Junior Kids Organization (MJKO). She has developed innovative courses that use boxing to teach practical skills that go beyond merely exercise and sport.

Through boxing, Kamal instructs kids on how to be confident but not cocky, how to make a first appearance, how to lead and coach, and how to sell one’s skills and talents. She sets up workshops where kids can learn from each other about different languages and cultures.

She also teaches female empowerment through boxing, as well as a self-defense course.

“People underestimate the amount of self esteem and control you get from putting on glove and getting your frustration out,” said Kamal, adding that she never hesitated to teach kids about a sport that some see as simple fighting. “I’m not trying to please anyone or be something I’m not. I’m giving these kids a fair shot,” she adds, explaining that all too often she is forced to deal with the deportation of a child. “That’s just me being a little kid wanting my fair shot. Life is about giving and helping.”

Kamal has come a long way since that ruptured disk. “It’s another blessing. Your journey defines you, as long as you are open to receiving it,” said Kamal. “It’s not what you’re going to want always, but it may be what’s best for you. I truly believe when you find what you’re supposed to do in this world, everything that matters to the outside world doesn’t matter to you.”