17 Feb, 2010 Giving cancer the one-two

Whangarei insurance assessor Jon Datson is donning boxing gloves for the first time in the hope of finding a cure for breast cancer.

Late last year assessors at IAG Insurance were challenged to a boxing competition by members of a panelbeating organisation, the Collision Repair Association.

The idea was to raise funds for the Breast Cancer Research Trust which is searching to find a cure for the disease by 2018.

Mr Datson is responsible for assessing damaged vehicles for insurance companies from Wellsford to Cape Reinga and is the only Northlander in an Auckland-based team of 12 to take part in the boxing match.

The Auckland team was to be trained by professional boxer and Dancing with the Stars runner-up Monty Betham. The competition is scheduled to be held on May 22 at Waitakere City's Trusts Stadium. It will be be a black tie event with serviced, corporate tables.

Cancer is a horrible thing to go through, Mr Datson said, and "the more money that goes into research and treatment the better".

He planned to get in some training with Kamo-based, gold medal winning former boxer Bill Kini. Mr Kini, 72, won a gold medal in the men's 81-91kg (heavyweight) division at the 1966 British and Commonwealth Games.

"I'll get him running through the bush, skipping and working with the medicine ball," he said. Mr Datson said he cycled to Whangarei from Ruatangata everyday, and was pretty fit.

"I borrowed Henry Cooper's Boxing book and have been reading up on tactics like upper-cuts, straight left and right hooks and attacking counter punches," he said.

He hoped to keep sponsorship within Whangarei to show Aucklanders "we can pack a punch".

Any sponsors would have their logo attached to Mr Datson's training and boxing gear. Five thousand dollars of sponsorship would guarantee a ringside table for ten people with each person receiving $100 worth of food and alcohol. A corporate table without sponsorship was worth $3000.

Mr Datson's managers in Auckland are now looking at organising a bus to transport Northlanders to the event.

Article from The Northern Advocate - online 17 February 2010