Oasis Academy Isle of Sheppey gives Sheerness Boxing Club five weeks to move out

Sheerness Boxing Club could be forced to throw in the towel after 45 years after it was suddenly made homeless.

The group, attended by thousands of Island youngsters since it was set up in 1977, was given five weeks to quit its base at the Oasis Academy in Minster to make way for sixth-formers.

The knock-out blow comes less than a year after the club was persuaded by school bosses to make its home at the campus. It had invested £30,000 in new equipment.

But the organisation, which has 150 members, has come out fighting with an appeal for a permanent base.

Head coach Steve Brum said: “Somebody please do the right thing. This club has been such an inspiration for so many children and adults for so many years yet it has never had a fixed home.

“Someone, somewhere on the Island has the power to make this happen.”

Club bosses say they received an email "out of the blue" telling them they had just five weeks to quit the Minster campus. Its final day at the academy is Friday, June 24.

Club chairman Richard Hoggins, 44, said: "It's crazy. The academy came to us. John Murphy its CEO asked us to move from Queenborough and to integrate with the school. At first, we were reluctant because we needed somewhere to keep the ring permanently up.

"But after listening to his long-term proposals we accepted, moved into the school and ended up with an excellent space in the sports block where we have been helping their pupils."

Members went to local businesses for help getting new training equipment, like rowing machines, and applied for bursaries, in their own time, from Kent County Council and England Boxing so teachers could take boxing sessions and add the sport to their PE syllabus.

Mr Hoggins, a father-of-two from Halfway, said: