‘I quit ballet to fight – so tumour will not beat me’
Nicola Barke feared her days of dancing around the boxing ring were over after brain-scan shock, writes Gareth A Davies
Nicola Barke has an unusual story: A ballet dancer turned boxer who is now, somewhat improbably, returning to the ring despite being diagnosed with a brain tumour.
The 30-year-old discovered last November, two years and four fights into her professional career, that there was an anomaly in her brain scan. “In order to be a professional boxer, to fight year on year, the British Boxing Board of Control needs to grant you a professional boxing licence, and as part of that routine annual check-up you’re required to undergo a full medical examination,” Barke explains.
That process includes a brain scan. “I was told I needed to see a specialist neurosurgeon. ‘That’s a bit bizarre,’ I thought. I turned up to the appointment really not thinking anything of it and then obviously got quite the surprise when they said, ‘Actually we found a growth on your brain, and it’s been growing since you had your first boxing brain scan two years ago.’ The neurosurgeon also told me they were 90 per cent sure that it would need to be removed as soon as I was ready.
“That was just before Christmas and I was like, ‘Wait, what? Where has this come from?’ Also, being asymptomatic because it was so early in the process, I was just in disbelief. It made no sense, it felt completely surreal. But I’m someone with what I like to call a blind positive attitude.”
Describing it as “a sort of bomb to drop”, Barke’s life has been “quite the roller coaster” in the past five months. The upshot is that the tumour, which was found behind her eyes, is benign and she has taken the decision to carry on boxing. “The final word I had from the consultant is that boxing would not exacerbate the brain tumour, so his recommendation was, ‘If that’s what makes you happy, and that’s what you want to do with your life, go ahead and box’. And that’s the way I feel. Because life is too short.”
That sort of drive has been evident throughout her life, whether doing ballet or boxing. She partook in the former as a youngster – “I think my parents just liked the idea of seeing their daughter do something very feminine, be in a tutu” – and competed in national ballet competitions, producing a “couple of medal-winning performances”. In her late teens, however, she decided to switch to combat sports. “I mustered up the courage to say, ‘I actually want to be a fighter’,” says Barke, who started in martial arts and then landed on boxing.
“Boxing’s definitely tougher, because it’s a lot more mentally strategic and I feel boxing, for me in particular, always levels me up mentally, emotionally, spiritually, physically, whereas ballet is rigour, discipline,” she says. Yet there are skills that cross over between the two. “Footwork, I definitely think passes over. Bizarrely enough, I’ve actually picked up a lot of Latin dancing recently and that footwork does translate nicely into the ring. They complement each other really well. I think Bruce Lee was like a cha-cha champion, so it massively helps.
“It’s hard to articulate but I just feel like boxing forces me to always be the best version of myself, no matter what might be going on in my life. It’s so brutally honest as a discipline.”
So, as improbable as it seems given the brain-tumour diagnosis, Barke will box on, with “multiple checks” every year. Originally from Luton, the 30-year-old trains with Grant Smith in Sheffield – in a gym that now houses former
‘I was just in disbelief. It made no sense. But I’m someone with what I like to call a blind positive attitude’
world champion Chantelle Cameron – and will fight for the first time since her tumour diagnosis, at York Hall in east London tomorrow.
She is clearly excited to get back in the ring, saying: “You can go one of two ways, right? You can be super protective, change your whole life, not live life to the full, because you’re in a shell, or you just sort of go out and don’t ever have to look back to say, ‘What if?’. For me, it’s definitely like we’re given so many opportunities, it’s just up to you whether you’re courageous enough to take them.
“I want to look back on life and say I followed my dreams and lived life to the full. I hope that one day my story can help inspire others, that they’re given a really potentially detrimental prognosis and if they have one or two options, they see someone else go full steam ahead and live with no regrets.
“One day, I want to be a world champion. I am not in a rush, but reach for the stars. That’s definitely my end goal. Boxing as a whole is a new sport for me but I definitely want to get to the top and I believe the team that I’m with at Steel City Gym will guide me there.”
So, will we see a Hollywood movie one day: the girl from Luton who was a ballerina, had a brain tumour and became a boxing world champion?
Barke laughs. “Hopefully, or at least I hope they invite me onto Strictly Come Dancing, that would be nice.”