A MIXED MARTIAL ARTS GYM GIVING KIDS A CHANCE

VIOLENT teenage drug-taker Aaron was on a path of self-destruction heading towards prison or death until he received a shock to his system.

- BY JANINE YAQOOB

Police were locking him up virtually every week and his loving parents, Danny and Elaine, had almost given up on the lost soul.

But then he started going to fighter and community activist Steven France's Made 4 The Cage gym in Sunderland.

Aaron is just one of many forgotten lads from a city ravaged by cuts and austerity whose lives have been turned around at the mixed martial arts gym.

Aaron and Steven's stories of growth, discovery and redemption - along with those of Sam, Faiz and Lennon - feature in Poised, a powerful documentary being tipped for Oscar success.

Aaron said: "I was a bit feral. Honestly, I was like a street dog. If you got too close to us, said the wrong thing, straight away I was going at you."

He said the gym is "the best therapy I've ever been to in my life".

SCRAPHEAP

Steven, 46, is battling the poverty and hopelessness, helping the next generation avoid the same traps that almost consumed him.

He reached a junction in his own life 20 years ago when his father killed himself. He said: "I had to say to myself, the writing's on the wall. The odds are not good.

"There's people around you who are going to prison for a long time. The way they were already coming to a dead end in their life at such a young age.

"We're thrown on the scrapheap. Your options are very slim, work at Nissan or a call centre. I'm grateful for those places but if you do have ambition it's hard."

Steven found solace in MMA and went on to become a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and an England coach in the sport.

He said: "It transformed my life and it's doing the same with these young lads. It's about me trying to get people from troubled, difficult backgrounds. Getting these kids, with some complex issues, to stick to what is the hardest sport.