LYNNE Miller and her daughter Rhian were both looking for a change.

Lynne, a psychologist, had been running her own business for 30 years.

As she entered her 50s, her friends were talking about slowing down, but that was the last thing she wanted.

Meanwhile, Rhian hadn’t been getting on well at school.

She left with four GCSEs and three years on, now describes herself as having been a ‘devil child’.

Lynne and her husband, Keith, owned a timeshare apartment in Thailand and had been visiting the country regularly with their two children, Rhian and her brother Sam, for about ten years.

She had a great deal of affection for the country and decided that a trip to Thailand was what she and her daughter needed.

But what started as a year’s holiday has turned into them setting up their own business in the country.

“There is only so much visiting places and laying on beaches you can have,”

says Rhian, now 19.

“We met some people in a bar who told us about Muay Thai boxing and suggested we had a go. I never liked exercise, but I really enjoyed it.”

The two women got hooked on Muay Thai.

Lynne says the appeal is: “Discipline in training, the spiritual element and it’s a fantastic way of exercising.”

As well as training in Muay Thai Lynne put her business experience to good use by helping the gym owner to run his gym, which was struggling.

He asked her to become his business partner and she decided to give it a go.

“I thought it would provide an interesting challenge towards the end of my career and give me the opportunity to learn a second language, both of which I had always wanted to do,”

explains Lynne.

This arrangement didn’t work out due to cultural differences, but by then Lynne and Rhian had another plan – to run their own Muay Thai training facility in Phuket.

They have now opened Sumalee Boxing Gym – which offers traditional Muay Thai training and hotel-style facilities.

While the move has been a radical change for Lynne, it has turned Rhian’s life around.Lynne and Rhian agree that she left school with few prospects.

“I’m not stupid but I was very naughty at school,” says Rhian.

“I was the class clown and I hated authority.”

But although Rhian struggled to learn at school she has picked up Thai incredibly well – which is notoriously difficult to learn to read and write.

She even runs her own translation and interpretation business alongside helping her mother run the school.

She has a Thai boyfriend who she lives with and says she speaks far more Thai than English – in fact when people speak to her on the phone they assume she is Thai.

Rhian says that people who knew her a couple of years ago when she still lived in Bartley in the New Forest would be amazed at how she has changed.

“I was what you’d call a no-hoper,” she says.

“I don’t think anyone saw any light at the end of the tunnel for me.”

As well as being a successful bilingual business woman at just 19, Rhian says her experiences in Thailand have transformed her relationship with both her mother and her father who still lives back home in Bartley.

“It’s much better to see my dad for nine weeks a year when he comes to visit and get on really well than to be like I was.

I really enjoy being with him now. I do miss him a lot.”

Lynne adds: “She is a completely different person now. My life has changed as well.

I’ve been able to explore new skills and a new way of life. All my friends were planning for their retirement and I thought ‘I don’t want to do that,’ but I never dreamt I’d be running a Muay Thai centre!”

Lynne says that while setting the centre up was very difficult, due to the bureaucracy involved, she would never have been able to afford to set up a similar business in the UK.

She will be staying in Thailand for at least the next few years to run the business but Rhian is less certain about her future.

“I don’t see myself staying here forever,”

she says.

“I’m not ready to settle down. I want to go to other places and learn new languages.

“I’ve been honoured to come to another country and live with the people.”

l For more information, visit sumaleeboxinggym.com