Bolton Olympic medallist Cindy Ngamba on worst moment of her life

The boxer, who got her start aged 14 at Bolton Lads’ and Girls’ Club, has not had an easy road to victory – coming to Bolton aged 11 from her native Cameroon, Cindy had no idea she was not officially documented in the UK.

She eventually found out the truth when it came time to apply for university – leading to her being arrested and spending time in a detention camp.

The Bolton News visited Cindy at the Elite Boxing gym in Halliwell, and asked about living with refugee status as an LGBT+ athlete.

We also asked Cindy about her road to victory in Paris, which you can read more about here, and spoke with her former Bolton Lads and Girls' Club coach David Langhorn.

What’s it like living with refugee status?

“I can get a job, I’m just not allowed to go into certain countries, I need a visa to go into certain countries – my mum lives in France and I need a visa to go to France, so I have to apply for a visa.”

Cindy added: “I’ve done it ever since I got my refugee status in 2020, so if I do want to go on holiday sometimes I have to think about four months ahead.

“When you do apply for a visa it takes about one month, one month and a half for them to decide whether they’re going to give you a visa.

“You have to go to London, or sometimes Liverpool, maybe Manchester to apply – you have to get certain papers for them to give you a visa, and if you miss out a paper you have to leave the appointment and have to look for another appointment.

“It’s hard to get a visa appointment – many people around the world are booking appointments. I feel like to immigration you’re just another number to them, they don’t really see you as a person.”

Cindy Ngamba during her round of 16 bout against Canada’s Tammara Thibeault (Image: John Huet/International Olympic Committee)

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You thought you had citizenship, you applied, and you’ve still not got it – can you tell us about that?

“I came from the UK when I was 11 years old, from all the way from a young child to 16 I thought I had papers, as a child you don’t really think about those types of things.

“You just think: I’m a child, I’m just going to go to school and come back home, have a shower, do my homework, eat food, and go back to bed and play and all that.

“As I got a bit older and when I was going to college and knew I needed papers to go to university, I never knew about that. I asked my father about it and he told me I didn’t have papers.

“It was a shock – I’ve gone through so many years to apply with my case to the Home Office, my case has been rejected – it was kind of like… not someone striking me in the chest, but I stayed determined I believed in myself and believed these were moments that were going to end, it wasn’t going to last forever.

“That’s when I got arrested by immigration – when I went to Manchester immigration centre. That’s where I had to go every weekend to sign, just to let them know that I’m still in the UK, I’ve not flown out.

“I got sent to a few more detention camps, and my brother got sent to another detention camp.

“Arriving there, I just froze when they first arrested me and put handcuffs on me, it’s the type of thing that you see on TV – you never see in real life.

“When it happens to you too, it’s kind of a shock – my mind was blank, I didn’t know what to think.

“Having to go to another female detention camp in London, being alone you don’t know what will happen, having to speak to some of the detained people there, there’s a mother living with children, adults, I was asking how long they’d been in there – some of them had been there for years, some of them didn’t even know what was going to happen to them.

“Some of them were going to be deported today, tonight, back to the country they’d left for so many years.

“I was sat there thinking: right, I’m going to be deported. Is that going to be me? Am I going to be next? I didn’t know what was happening.

“I spoke to my brother, Kennet Ngamba, and he kind of calmed me down, told me ‘you need to calm down, relax, everything’s going to be OK, don’t overthink it’.

“Luckily my uncle that lives in Paris with my mum was able to get hold of the government here in the UK and they were able to make them release me – the reason they released me is because I have family members like my dad and my sibling that were British citizens living here in the UK.

“If me and my brother didn’t have any family here in the UK we would have been sent back to Cameroon.

“Through that I still had to apply to the Home Office with my cases.”

Cindy spoke at her gym after returning home (Image: Jack Fifield, Newsquest)

Cindy added: “I was about 18 years old. It was the worst thing – I would not wish it on my worst enemy. I think I cried so many times there were no more tears.

“I could definitely say that was the worst moment of my life, everything I’ve gone through. Whenever anything challenging comes in my life, I kind of compare it and contrast it to that.

“That moment – what I’m finding hard at the moment – there’s nothing that’s going to be harder than what happened, there’s no way, it’s not possible.

“Even if there’s something similar to it, I will overcome it because I was able to overcome what I’ve had to go through in my previous situation, being in a detention camp and always having to always watch my back every second, minute, day, month, week, and years – I could be taken by Home Office just like that.

“For me to have finally got my refugee status in 2020 was an amazing feeling. I could go to university, I can work and I can travel around the world. I was able to go and see my mum in 2021 after not seeing her for many, many years.

“I left my mum when I was about 11 years old and for me to see her when I turned 21 – if you think about that, I didn’t see my mum for 10 years. As a child you need your mother to keep on going and become an adult.

“My brother Kennet was kind of like my father and mother at the same time.”

“It made me very strong and made me have a thick skin in whatever challenge comes in life, I’m able to overcome whatever,” Cindy said.

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Cindy Ngamba's reaction upon winning her bout against Canada’s Tammara Thibeault (Image: Peter Byrne/PA Wire)

How does being LGBT+ impact your life?

“I come from a very African background, and as an African it’s not a very good thing to be gay or a lesbian, so that’s why I was ashamed about it.

“My siblings have been very supportive of me – my brothers and my siblings, I think they were the most people I was kind of very scared to open up to and come out to, but I did come out to my sibling, my brother, and they were so welcoming, I think when I turned 17 or 18.

“They were so welcoming and told me ‘we kind of knew already’, you know. I used to go on YouTube and watch videos of people coming out to their family: some went well and some didn’t go well, and I used to wonder… those that didn’t go well kind of backed me up and made me not want to come out.

“When I actually found it within myself to come out to my family the way they took it was amazing – they gave me hope that me being lesbian was OK, it was fine, and I was normal.

“I had questioned myself so many times on whether what I was, being a lesbian, was normal or not, so support from my family and people who have known me ever since I was a child made me feel OK and happy, and I was not ashamed of it at all.”

What would you like to see change, given an often toxic debate about refugees in the media?

“I would love people to educate themselves a bit more about refugees – not just refugee athletes but ordinary people who are refugees.

“A lot of people are not very educated about refugees – I don’t think people take the time to educate themselves, and I think they should take the time to educate themselves.

“At the end of the day, we’re human, we’re hungry just like any other people all around the world are hungry in life in general and we have aims and goals.

“We work hard, we’re happy and we have family and love, some of them left their country because of danger, for a better life, a better future – it’s not like they’re coming to your country just to mess about.

“They’re hardworking and they want to create something for themselves, they don’t want to cause no trouble, they have aims and goals, just like me. I came to the UK for a better life and better future.

“I grew up as an adult, as a teenager, and I created something for myself and I won a medal at the Olympics and it’s not like I was doing nothing, I went to school, college, university, I have so many amazing key things I achieved and people can never tell me ‘oh you came in the country just to mess about or just to do nothing’ – that’s not what I did, I actually created something for myself.”

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Even after all this you’ve still not been given citizenship – you wanted to compete for Team GB – that must be really frustrating?

“I did, I wanted to compete for Team GB and Team GB wanted me to compete for them too. They even wrote a letter to the Home Office saying they wanted me to compete for them in the 2024 Olympics. That did not ease the Home Office on wanting to give me papers.

“I was able to get my refugee status, I got my refugee status in 2020, I have had to spend five years with my refugee status and then I will be given another refugee status, I will have to spend another year with that one and then I can apply for my British citizenship.

“So, I’m hoping by the end of 2026 I will get my British citizenship.”

Would you like to see a change to the process with the new government?

“I would actually love to see many changes. Listen, I’m not different than any other refugee out there, but I do believe that I’ve been in the country for many years – I came when I was 11 years old, I’m 25 now, so I’ve been here for nearly 14 years now.

“I feel like I’m a British citizen, people care about me, people see what I’ve achieved and they believe I deserve my papers to be fixed and for many people out there that are fighting and trying their best I think things need to be changed, but obviously I can’t change them – the government will be the one changing it.”

Is there anything else you’d like to speak about?

“I just want to thank Elite Boxing and my town Bolton, and I hope that people around the world know about Bolton now – I think Bolton’s a very small town that people don’t really know much about – they know Manchester but obviously we’re not Manchester, we’re Bolton.

“So I hope that people around the world know that people who live in Bolton are hard workers and very determined, just like people from Manchester and people from London.”

If you have a story, I cover the whole borough of Bolton. Please get in touch at jack.fifield@newsquest.co.uk.