A former professional fighter from Brooklyn is helping children outside the ring by building their confidence through martial arts.

Laurie Cahill says she studied martial arts for more than two decades and fought competitively for 16 years. She comes from a family with six children.

Cahill says when she's not teaching children at the Visitation Academy in Bay Ridge, she's teaching martial arts to those who thought they could never learn it.

She says some of her students have been in car accidents, have Down syndrome, are in a wheelchair or have had a stroke.

Cahill says her students have changed her by teaching her to be grateful and kind to one another.