Savannah Marshall outlines ‘The Better You’ project aims as she prepares for Franchon Crews-Dezurn showdown

Away from the ring, however, the Hartlepool fighter is leading the way with her ‘Off The Canvas – The Better You’ project which aims to inspire and improve the physical and mental health and well-being of young children.

Marshall packs a punch in-between the ropes and now she is looking to make just as big an impact away from her role as the Silent Assassin.

Marshall was the talk of the hallways at Stranton Primary School as she took part in a series of exercises with pupils to demonstrate and promote the benefits of ‘The Better You’ project.

The aim of the programme, which Marshall has given her full support to as can be seen with her community visits and the quirky ‘Off The Canvas’ logo which displays a caricature version of the Hartlepool fighter, is to make a difference in schools, with children aged 3-11, and equip pupils with the personal skills, character development and key knowledge to stay healthy, safe and prepared for life.

Despite her rise to stardom in recent years, Marshall, herself, hasn’t found it easy dealing with the social and mental aspects of her life as a boxer.

As a young girl growing up in Hartlepool, Marshall has often detailed how her struggles led her to sport and exercise – something which, in itself, brought about its own series of challenges.

And for Marshall, the opportunity to be able to give back and implement a strategy in young children to help deal with some of these challenges is as rewarding as delivering a knockout blow to one of her opponents in the ring and is something she wished she was able to take advantage of at a young age.

“It would have been massive for me to have something like this,” Marshall explains to The Mail.

“You can look at how far I’ve come, I’ve been boxing now for 22-years, but do you know what? Maybe if I had something like this in school I wouldn’t have choked in the Olympic Games.

“Maybe I would have gotten that Olympic medal? Maybe I would have had the self-belief and confidence then?”

Marshall continued: “I was socially awkward. I really struggled with confidence and self-belief.

“These are all skills that I’ve picked up through the years of training hard and sport.

“This project is really important to me because I struggled in school. I’m also dyslexic so I struggled with the curriculum side of things.

“So just with the profile, and the name that I’ve got now, I feel like I can use that to really push something like this.

“Mental well-being is massive at the minute. And I believe at this age, from 3-11, before children enter secondary school is a key age.

“At that age, these skills can be developed which will set them up for secondary school because secondary school is hard, it’s really hard. Life is hard. So I believe that this is the right age group and this is where they would feel the benefits most from this programme.”

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Marshall’s quest to tap into the younger age group is commendable, and to be able to do so in her native North East adds to the desire to make ‘The Better You’ project a success.

And while the aim will be to push this programme nationwide, in a day away from punch bags and sparring sessions, Marshall was able to take part in kids games to bring excitement to young faces, all of whom have grown to love the Hartlepool star in recent years during her rise to the top of professional boxing.

“This project isn’t just aimed towards schools in the North East,” says Marshall.

“We’re hoping to push it nationally. I feel like this programme could help a lot of children, and a lot of underprivileged children, and hopefully it does what we aim to.

“I came [back to the North East] a couple of months ago when we were doing a lot of the filming and it was nice that a lot of children had watched my last fight with Claressa [Shields]. I was quite surprised, especially at that age, but it’s great, it really is.

“I’m still shocked by the support. I’m getting stopped all the time. I was in Manchester at the weekend and somebody came up to me and said ‘you’re absolutely amazing’ and I was like ‘wow’ I went bright red.”

In little over a month’s time, Marshall will be under the spotlights of another expectant crowd in Manchester’s AO Arena as she looks to dethrone Crews-Dezurn to become the undisputed super middleweight champion.

In that sense, you could be forgiven for thinking her mind would be elsewhere from ‘The Better You’ project but the 32-year-old was again keen to stress her dedication to the launch.

“It’s been hard [balancing this with training] but I’ve got a really good team around me who have helped develop this project,” said Marshall.

“We’ve trialled it in the North East quite heavily over the past couple of months and the feedback has been amazing from the children, really enjoying sport. So that’s the main aim really, keeping children happy.”

Marshall will be hoping she can continue to keep the children happy with ‘The Better You’ project as well as with her performance in the ring when she returns on July 1.