Cheshire Home chairman takes to the ring for fundraising bout

The chairman of the Guernsey Cheshire Home helped raise thousands of pounds for the charity when he took part in a fight during a Las Vegas white collar boxing event at Beau Sejour.

Mr Shepherd has been boxing training regularly as a way of keeping fit for about four to five years. Prior to his bout, he spent 12 tough weeks training at the Boxfit gym.

‘I thought it wasn’t going to get any easier and I really wanted to do this,’ he said.

Mr Shepherd, 56, was the oldest of the group who took part in the event. His opponent, Jean-Luc de Garis, was one of the youngest at 22.

‘Boxing seems to me to have had a bit of a renaissance recently,’ he said.

‘It used to be a blood sport that no-one would go near, but now it’s really safe.

‘No-one is going to get hurt being hit with those gloves.’

He said physical exercise, improving mental health and discipline were among the benefits – as well as the challenge of ‘walking into that ring with 350 people shouting and blaring’.

Each fight at the event lasted three rounds of two minutes. Mr Shepherd’s ended in a tie and was later voted fight of the night by the audience.

He personally raised nearly £3,000 for the Cheshire Home. An auction and raffle on the night, which included VIP tickets to the next Tyson Fury fight and a shirt worn by the late Brazilian footballer Pele, raised an additional £12,000.

He said he was considering taking part in another boxing event, King of the Ring, which is being held in the summer.

n The Cheshire Home receives no States funding and runs entirely off fundraising and donations, at a cost of over a million pounds a year.