Official website of the International Federation of Sport Climbing.

On Tony’s side of things, although born in London, there was always a Bajan backdrop and culture to Molly’s life with the family heading to the UK from the Caribbean.

“He’s one of six, so it’s big family. It’s your typical big black family. There’s always loud music and everything is centred around food. There’s some big characters in there.”

At this point of the conversation Molly once again shows just how open and easy to talk to she is. As a white male I have no frame of reference for the next set of questions, and topics like race can be very difficult conversations to have, but Molly, from her own experience knows that and answers the only way she knows how, with great honesty.

Talking about her dad’s upbringing as a black man in London, Molly recalls: “I actually remember when I went to Moscow in 2020 during the pandemic for the European Championships, there was a TV program on the BBC.

“I can’t remember what it was called, but it was essentially my dad’s childhood in a BBC drama. It was a bit fictional, but it was based on real life, and I just remember texting him straight after like ‘dad, you actually went through all this crazy stuff?’

“He just said ‘yeah, it was normal’. He would be chased down the street, sometimes by the police just for being black.”

It’s natural for a parent to shelter their children from painful things so it wasn’t something that they would talk about, but as Molly was also quick to point out, it’s something that the majority of us are dealing with now.

“I guess its the same way we feel with the wars happening, in a way you’re so disconnected from it. You know it’s happening, but it’s almost like it’s not real because it’s not close enough to impact you in the same way as those who are in it.”

Molly was lucky that she fell into Climbing almost through chance, but in the world of professional sports role models do play a big part in younger generations starting, something that Molly is, not just as a black woman, but as a woman full stop.

With her honesty, I was keen to know what Molly thought about the representation and campaigns surrounding black people in the UK, and around the world.

“I’m torn sometimes. Especially in Climbing there aren’t many black athletes, so the same people are always asked to take part in the campaigns, but then on the flip side that’s the point. If we don’t do it, then how will we get more black people into the sport. It is important to see people from the community you are from.

“Doing these campaigns can sometimes be difficult, but the most important thing for me is that it is not just a box ticking exercise, that every year on a certain date people come to me. Whatever I do I want it to be part of something worthwhile and backed up, not just a token gesture.”

Switching the focus back to mum and grandad. Anyone who follows Molly on social media will know food, and especially growing vegetables is close to her heart.

For anyone not following Molly on Instagram, you are missing out on a comprehensive annual mince pie review that begins around December time.

“You know what’s funny? I didn’t even like mince pies until about three years ago, so it’s not even like I’ve been a die hard mince pie fan for my whole life.

“It started because I was a bored of Climbing content all the time, and I hadn’t posted in a while, so I juststarted rating mince pies and it just got a wild amount of response. I got so many messages from people saying they loved it and were there for it.”

Molly’s mince pie success created a problem though: “I wasn’t sure if I was going to do it last Christmas as I’d already kind of done it, but people were messaging me saying they were waiting to buy their mince pies until they had my ratings, so I had to do it. Got to give the fans what they want.”

As Molly recognises with social media, nearly everything you post has its own dedicated following which can get quite ‘tribal’.

“I love growing my own vegetables, I got that from my grandad and my mum who loves planting and growing. But whenever you post you get so many comments and suggestions about the best way to grow. It gets intense.

“I remember sending a picture to my mum once. We had some outside space I was thinking about changing and maybe adding a workspace for my boyfriend Sam. I wanted to get her thoughts, but all she could say was there was cat poo in my planters! That wasn’t even the point of the picture, and it was so small, but she saw it.”