Former Doncaster boxer helping inspire community as foundation brings up first year
When Doncaster's Jason Cunningham hung up his gloves and retired from boxing in January 2024, he was never just going to sit back and relax.
It wasn’t long after his retirement in April 2024 that he would form the Iceman Foundation - almost a year to the day infact, on April 16.
“I can’t believe it’s been a year," Jason, a former British, European and Commonwealth super-bantamweight champion, enthused. “A lot has happened in that time and this has definitely been one of the positives from it."
Whilst the Iceman Foundation has only just brought up its maiden 12 months, boxing in the community has been something Jason has always tried to push. He says: "I helped Jamie and Gavin McDonnell with their foundation, I’ve always worked with the community through boxing, so its something I’ve had experience in. And once I retired it was kind of an obvious choice for me."
The running club is the most popular session within the foundation and one Jason is very happy with the progress of: "That has been quite strong all year, it’s always had good numbers since the beginning. Everyone is welcome and everyone is there to help each other, at the running club you are racing world champion boxers like Terri Harper, and other professionals who are at the top of their game, we hope to inspire the younger generation coming through."
Saturday mornings are one of the busiest times in the foundation’s week, with the running club at 9am at Pitman Road. There, a varied number of six to 12 hill sprints take place followed by usually a 3-4km run. Then it’s back to the gym at the Crossings on Doncaster Road in Denaby Main for a session from 10-11am.
Then follows a 'mini-hitters' class for youngsters aged five to 10 as Jason, from Woodlands, explains: "I see it as an intro into boxing. It’s all non-contact, but a bit of weekend fun for the young ones more than anything. I’ve been doing it for the better part of 10 years, but we then incorporated it into the Iceman foundation, got funding for it and are now able to offer free sessions to the kids."
The foundation is not just sport-focused but encourages interaction through a range of other activities. Courtney Bond is both a coach and attendee of the Iceman Foundation and described the importance of such an operation: "You can definitely see an improvement in people’s mental health and their character.
"You get people from different walks of life coming into the gym, it’s all one big community. More people need to get on board as it’s such an amazing opportunity, that could massively change people for the better.
"It’s a team of people coming together from different backgrounds all for one purpose.”
To find out more information, visit icemanfoundation.org.