Boxing: I FEEL FOR GAZZA. I'VE BEEN IN SAME DARK PLACES BUT CAME THROUGH IT; EXCLUSIVE: FRANK BRUNO WITH A MESSAGEOF HOPE FOR ANOTHER TROUBLED EX-SPORTSMAN.

Byline: BY MIKE WALTERS

THAT booming bass clef laughter, silenced for too long but now happily restored to full chortle, resonated around the ring erected in a school gymnasium.

And as a familiar figure covered up on the ropes, 16-year-old Jamie Johnston's punches thudded against his celebrity sparring partner's mitts.

"Don't hit me too hard," badgered Frank Bruno, trying not to flinch as his pads absorbed the teenager's earnest blows, "or I'll tell my mum."

Everyone smiled at the guest comedian's reheated wisecrack - and yet not that long ago Bruno was so vulnerable he could have uttered the same one-liner without anyone knowing for sure if he meant it.

When he was sectioned in 2003 under the Mental Health Act, all that was left of Bruno was a pitiful shell of the prize fighter who once won the WBC heavyweight title.

He was a broken man, a lost soul who simply didn't know what to do with himself when the music stopped.

One crass, pernicious headline branded him "Bonkers Bruno" just when he needed help more than at any time since Mike Tyson's fusillade of unanswered punches had ushered him towards retirement 12 years ago.

Now he has become a standard bearer for fallen sportsmen - and walking proof it is possible to fight back from insidious psychiatric illness.

Paul Gascoigne, once English football's pied piper and, to a lesser extent, tortured Test cricketer Marcus Trescothick, have since become high-profile casualties of the tricks sporting fame can play on the mind.

While Tresco has faced his demons stoically, Gazza's condition is still a cause for concern. But Bruno's spirit has mended, and boxing is a happier place for it.

Although his marriage did not survive the tailspin towards nervous breakdown, he has left behind tales of sleeping in a boxing ring erected in his back garden or directing the traffic outside his house.

Bruno, now 4 6, has discovered the pleasures of "normality" and today he is in his element, opening a pioneering boxing academy at the Priory School in Orpington which bears his name.

He looks well - and sounds well. "I'm a bachelor now and I do normal things - I go to Tesco nearly every day and wheel my trolley among the housewives, I cook for myself at home and just try to keep myself happy - which is what I am," says Bruno. "I've given up playing at being a DJ and hung up my turntables, but I haven't retired from pantomime yet - I would fish the old tights out of the attic if a good script came along.

"But I'm enjoying my life again, just doing what everyone else does at home: the washing-up, the Hoovering, the cleaning and keeping fit by going to Champneys health farm every day.

"Everyone knows I've been through a lot since I stopped boxing - a few years ago I was in a very dark place - but I've come out of the other side. I've got no responsibilities, no pressure, no nagging in my ears. I'm chilled and content.

"I feel for Paul Gascoigne very, very much. We are sportsmen from the same generation, and when you meet him Gazza is one of the nicest guys.

"Unfortunately, life sometimes takes you on a downward path, and I can only feel sorry for him if he's gone through a nervous breakdown because he'll be frightened. It's not a nice place to be.

"I just wish him all the best and hope he manages to get himself together. You can learn to laugh again." In the closing rounds of his career, Bruno became a ringside cheerleader for former world supermiddleweight champion Nigel Benn, driving him forwards towards the harrowing climax of a memorably brutal win against Gerald McClellan.

Last year Benn sold off all his DarkDestroyer memorabilia in an attempt to cleanse himself of the hedonistic pleasures he chased in his heyday.

Bruno, however, has no plans to make a clean break with the past - and, unlike Benn, who has reinvented himself as a pastor in Majorca, he is not ashamed of his past.

"I've kept a lot of my souvenirs so the kids can make a bit of corn from it one day. But I'm not ashamed of who I am, or what I achieved in boxing," says Bruno.

"I did pretty well for myself: I didn't have an education, but I'm pretty comfortable with my record - I won the world heavyweight title, and not many Brits have done that in the last 100 years."

Joe Calzaghe and Ricky Hatton aside, British boxing's landscape looks desolate these days without Bruno's endearing one-liners and he readily admits "the game's not what it was" - although he doesn't miss the deals and the double-crossing.

Would he come out of retirement for a third fight with Tyson if someone dangled a cheque for pounds 10million in front of him? Cue that booming laugh: "I'm not that kinky, boss - I don't need the money and I don't need the pain.

"Sure, I would love to catch up with Tyson again, but not in the ring. He was a bit tasty in his prime as a fighter, but I can't knock him for it.

"That was business - yeah, it hurt, but I'm still here. Mustn't grumble."

I wish Gazza all the best and hope he manages to sort himself out. You can learn to laugh again

FEARS

Gazza hit rock bottom and his mental health is still a cause for concern

SMILES

A rejuvenated Bruno opens a boxing academy named after him in Orpington