It is a bright Saturday morning in Gravesend and the low autumn light is bouncing off the white walls of the Guru Nanak gurdwara. A grand structure just outside the town centre, the temple plays a number of roles in the local community. It’s a place of worship for Sikhs, as well as a community centre. It provides free food for Gravesend’s homeless. Then, on the side, it has several football pitches. That is where Parm Gill likes to spend her time.

“I was contemplating whether I should give it up this year,” says Gill of her love affair with football. “Perhaps just concentrate on the coaching side. But I would be lost without playing. It’s important to be part of a team; you play, you learn and you can take away your mistakes Then you watch the girls make those mistakes but you can actually help them: ‘Well this was incorrect and I know because I did it.’ So I’m going to carry on, for as long my legs allow me.”

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Gill, 51, is a founding member of the Guru Nanak FC women’s team. Indeed, she is its founder, full stop. Three years ago, this mother of two boys in the Guru Nanak youth teams asked her sons’ coaches to let her start a female section. They said, sure, if you can get the numbers. Gill set about approaching every woman and every mother she knew, and many she did not, persuading them to sign up for something that did not at that point exist.

Today, there are more than 70 women and girls training with Guru Nanak. There are four female teams. Gill, meanwhile, has become something of a symbol; celebrated for her endeavours, she has been presented with awards by the Football Association at local and national level and, in September, she received Uefa’s Grassroots Gold Award for her work. “When you win an award like that you definitely think: ‘I’m doing something correct here,’” she says.

In part, Gill has been recognised because she opened football up to a new community, that of Sikh women and this provides the latest chapter in the remarkable history of Guru Nanak FC, a club founded in 1965, just a decade after a south Asian community began to grow in Gravesend.

Gill has arguably achieved something richer and more complex still, however. Her teams are diverse, with girls and women of all ethnicities (and ages) taking part. The matches and training sessions bring people together who might never otherwise meet. The setup at Guru Nanak provides an essential community function, especially in an age of austerity.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Parm Gill says: ‘The first time I kicked a ball was at the age of 48. Most of the ladies in the team were in the same boat.’ Photograph: Ben Radford/Getty Images

At the heart of it all is a woman who just loves drills. “I used to be one of those mums who stood on the sidelines,” Gill says, looking back. “I was there with my wellies and my raincoat. I wanted my boys to be part of this club, and health and fitness was one of those things that I pushed the children to do right from the beginning. Eventually, I thought I needed to do something for myself. I went into netball, I did boot camp, I did all these Tough Mudders and boxing and all sorts. But then I looked at the boys training. I just love the fitness side, the drills that they do, the hurdles, going round the cones in short bursts and everything. And I just thought: ‘I would love to do that.’”

After getting the nod from the Guru Nanak officials (and engaging the support of the Kent FA), Gill set about knocking on doors. “I went to the schools, I went to the temple, I used to put leaflets through doors,” she says. “I used to come to the ground and talk to the mothers as well. I used to encourage them. ‘You’re standing here, why don’t you come and play here instead?’ Now we have some mothers that have two children in different age groups and play in their own matches too.”

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Guru Nanak has a women’s team and three girls’ sides, the under-nines, under-11s and under-14s, running alongside the men’s and boys’ teams. Whereas the women’s team have their own coach, Gill has a role in all the girls’ sides and coaches the under-14s. “You don’t have to be living in Gravesend, you can come from anywhere,” she says. “Come, pay, play and walk away; that’s basically it. You don’t have to be part of the club, any club, but it turns out that most girls want to be. Not necessarily to play in the league on a Sunday, but be part of the club.”

As for diversity, it is something Gill is passionate about. “You don’t see many Asian professional footballers and we’d like to help our children progress in that way,” she says. “But it’s not just for Asians, it is not even for the Sikh girls either. It is for everyone. Because we do open our doors to everyone. We have players of every background, every religion, and that is our aim.”

Before long, Gill returns to her drills, this time with her teammates in the women’s first XI. She goes at them with the energy of a woman less than half her age. It is this enthusiasm that radiates from everything at Guru Nanak on this sunny morning and it will be necessary in the future. Not just to help the club continue its life-changing mission, but in more prosaic matters too; like winning three points on a Saturday.

“The first time I kicked a ball was at the age of 48,” says Gill. “Most of the ladies in the team were in the same boat. Our first year in the league was difficult. We were losing by double figures. But we wanted more so we signed up for the second season and got those double figures down to single figures. Now we’re in our third year, and we’re hungry to win. We don’t like seeing nil points. And as long as we stay fit and healthy, no injuries that’s the main thing, I think three points are around the corner.”