Sheerness Boxing Club could be forced to throw in the towel after 45 years after it was suddenly made homeless.

The group, attended by thousands of Island youngsters since it was set up in 1977, was given five weeks to quit its base at the Oasis Academy in Minster to make way for sixth-formers.

The knock-out blow comes less than a year after the club was persuaded by school bosses to make its home at the campus. It had invested £30,000 in new equipment.

But the organisation, which has 150 members, has come out fighting with an appeal for a permanent base.

Head coach Steve Brum said: “Somebody please do the right thing. This club has been such an inspiration for so many children and adults for so many years yet it has never had a fixed home.

“Someone, somewhere on the Island has the power to make this happen.”

Club bosses say they received an email "out of the blue" telling them they had just five weeks to quit the Minster campus. Its final day at the academy is Friday, June 24.

Club chairman Richard Hoggins, 44, said: "It's crazy. The academy came to us. John Murphy its CEO asked us to move from Queenborough and to integrate with the school. At first, we were reluctant because we needed somewhere to keep the ring permanently up.

"But after listening to his long-term proposals we accepted, moved into the school and ended up with an excellent space in the sports block where we have been helping their pupils."

Members went to local businesses for help getting new training equipment, like rowing machines, and applied for bursaries, in their own time, from Kent County Council and England Boxing so teachers could take boxing sessions and add the sport to their PE syllabus.

Mr Hoggins, a father-of-two from Halfway, said: "Boxing is a great way of letting off steam and has been proved to help pupils with ADHD. We were also helping the guys in the sixth form as well as running our own club nights on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays."

But he added: "Unbeknown to us, while we were doing all this, the school under its new principal Andy Booth was holding meetings to get us out as it wants to expand the sixth form, move it from Sheerness and reclaim the gym. They are within their rights but it contradicts our original agreement and means everything we have put into it has been a waste of time."

He insisted: "There was no discussion with us or a heads-up. This short-sighted approach by the school raises the question that it might be time to support a second secondary school for Sheppey."

A spokesman for Oasis said: "We are proud to have been able to host Sheerness Boxing Club within the Academy and are grateful to the owners and the volunteers for the support they give to our students and local young people.

"Any lettings agreements we have in place with local partners are subject to the rooms and facilities not being required for the day-to-day running of the school.

"We must prioritise creating a great teaching and learning environment for our young people and as we are anticipating a rise in numbers in some of our year groups this September we are having to re-utilise some of the space within the Academy."

The club says it paid £6,000 a year to rent space at the academy.

Mr Brum said: "We never asked to go to the school. The school came to us. Now, after 11 months, they have decided they have no room.

"As a small Island, I believe we should all stick together and lend a hand when one needs it. Sheerness Boxing Club opened their doors up to me when I was 15. I was a young boy who came to the Island every weekend to train on Fridays.

"Even though I wasn’t one of their fighters they welcomed me with open arms and looked after me as one of their own.

"This club has produced some great talent with many of them being national champions. If this club gets shut down then who are we to judge the younger generation when they don’t have places to go to?"

The club was originally founded by Colin O'Bray at the Dockyard church in Blue Town and later taken over by Joe Schembri. When he retired, it was run by Sean Baker and Danny Williams.