Edinburgh's Lochend Amateur Boxing Club is a training club for fighters such as former world lightweight champion Ken Buchanan. But it is also being credited with encouraging local schoolchildren to lose weight and behave better.

Set up last year by trainer Terry McCormack, the club now has 200 members, including 30-40 boys and girls aged between eight and 13.

Children who play truant from school or behave badly are excluded from the gym, so many have reformed their behaviour to be allowed in.

Overweight children have also shed excess pounds by training and using diet sheets provided by the club.

McCormack said yesterday: "Kids learn to channel energy into something that keeps them fit and teaches them respect for themselves and for other people."