In 2006, having her first fight, Laurene was only 16. When she first arrived in Torquay, she was subject to some bullying at school, but the decision to take up Muay Thai had nothing to do with that. By then she had happily changed schools and was about to enter the Sixth Form at Torquay Grammar School for Girls.  From early years her main physical activity had been something deemed more suitable for pretty middle-class girls of an artistic bent – dancing. Her mother was predictably horrified at Laurene’s decision. It was only meeting Karen Ousey that reconciled her to it. Laurene is full of praise for Karen, her instructor at Sukhothai Paignton, but what convinced her mother was that three-time world champion Karen still retained her looks – she was impressed by the fact that a world champion could be pretty and attractive and have nose and ears the normal shape!

After the Ann Larson fight, Laurene had one more, a draw, then retired undefeated! Two years of ‘A’ Level study led to a degree course in Film Studies at Queen Mary University – and, on arrival in London, she decided to resume her Muay Thai career.  Karen’s advice was to join Keddle’s gym, but Orpington was just too far and she turned to Philip Tieu who had learned his craft with Master Sken. Soon Team Tieu seemed much more interesting than sitting in darkened rooms watching old films – something that convinced her she had made the wrong choice of degree course – so she quit university and devoted more and more time to Muay Thai, filling in with part-time jobs.

When I met Laurene, her involvement in Muay Thai was obviously much greater than in the days of teenage bravado. She had recently returned from a training trip to Thailand and was as enthusiastic about the country as well as the sport – and looking to return as soon as possible. At first she claimed to be embarrassed by her 16-year-old self’s performance – too little technique! – but eventually she admitted to being quite proud of her courage and determination, as she should be. Laurene’s wonderfully positive approach was only soured by the fact that her first fight for Team Tieu had been cancelled when her opponent dropped out and, as yet, no other had been fixed. However, she was excited by Billionmore’s sponsorship and got ready to choose her personalised Hero design for her adult debut – whenever it might come.

April 8th, 2010                                               

Laurene emails with two bits of good news: she has a fight arranged for June 27th and her most recent interclub went well: ‘I tko’d my opponent in a minute of the 1st round with a knee to the ribs!’  Roll on, June  27th!

Instead, I have to leave this as ‘to be continued...’ When Laurene finally has her first fight, I’ll add it to the story so far. Let’s hope it’s not another six months of cancellations and disappointments!