Angela Lee explains how FightStory can help people struggling with depression: “We are all fighters”

Former ONE women’s atomweight MMA world champion ‘Unstoppable’ Angela Lee made the decision to retire from professional fighting a couple of weeks ago in order to focus on her newfound purpose.

Lee established a non-profit organization, FightStory, aiming to help people struggling with depression and suicide. This comes months after the passing of Lee’s younger sister and fellow ONE Championship athlete, Victoria Lee, who tragically took her own life last December.

Speaking in a guest appearance on The MMA Hour with veteran MMA journalist Ariel Helwani, Lee explained what FightStory is set out to accomplish.

‘Unstoppable’ said:

“Fightstory is a mental health non-profit organization and it was created with the main mission being that we are all fighters in some way in our own unique way and we all go through struggles and battles and we all fight through them. This is what unites us. Even though much of the focus is on highlighting combat sports athletes' or fighters’ mental health, it's not just for fighters in the cage only.”

Lee also revealed that her highly publicized 2017 car crash was actually a suicide attempt, as she shared details of her own personal mental health struggles.

She added:

“It's something that I wish or hope that everyone can relate to, and it's just about starting the conversation creating this awareness and advocacy for the importance of mental health and how it's so directly linked to physical health and there's just a really important need for balance I think not only in the fight world in sports but also just in regular life and keeping that balance finding that balance is is hard to do. But yeah, the goal with this nonprofit is to help people save lives.”

With her official retirement, Lee leaves behind a legacy in ONE Championship that will be hard to match, but also embarks on a new journey to champion a much greater cause.