Belt Boy by Kevin Lueshing with Mike Dunn Release date: 29th April, 2016 Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers List Price: £9.99 Our Price: £9.99 You Save: £0 (0%) Buy Now

He fought with the initials NSPCC sewn on his shorts. But nobody knew why. He became a British champion and knocked down one of the most-famous boxers on the planet in a world title fight. But nobody knew about the fund raising or the secret donations he was making to a children's charity that seemed so far removed from the brutal world of boxing. What was the dark secret Kevin Lueshing took into the ring with him every time he fought? Why did those five initials - NSPCC - mean so much? For the first time Lueshing has rediscovered the strength of a champion to tell his own harrowing story. His autobiography, The Belt Boy, is the completely true account of a brutal life kept hidden. Lueshing won the British welterweight title in a battle so ferocious it was voted fight of the year. But while the newspapers, TV and radio stations applauded his achievements, there was one story they knew nothing about. From the age of five, Lueshing was a victim: first cruelly and viciously beaten by his own father who would order his son to select a belt from his wardrobe to be beaten with. But the torment didn't end there. By the time he was 10, Lueshing was cynically and patiently groomed by a local paedophile - who he innocently mistook as a friend - and who lured him into months of sexual abuse. In the end, boxing broke the cycle and against all the odds proved to be Lueshing's salvation. The Belt Boy is not only an explicit account of what childhood abuse looks like, it is also a rare insight into the realities of professional boxing. Lueshing reveals how contracts were drawn up and signed by some of the biggest promoters in the sport; how he was offered money to throw a fight; how he supplied marijuana to Mike Tyson, twice attempted suicide - and how his own extreme sexual deviancy left him incapable of being faithful. While The Belt Boy is uncensored and shocking, it is also proof that the human spirit can prevail - no matter how extreme and desperate the odds.