A supporter's journey to raise a shit ton of money and make his wife proud with Benjamin Heller

Not Every Fight Ends at the Bell

This episode of Not Every Fight Ends at the Bell featured Ben Heller, a 49-year-old boxer training to fight in the Haymakers for Hope charity boxing event to raise money for cancer research. Ben's motivation comes from his wife Amanda's battle with metastatic breast cancer.

Ben shared his family's history with cancer, including losing his father to cancer and his mother being a breast cancer survivor. When Amanda was diagnosed with breast cancer during the pandemic, she initially went through treatment and was declared cancer-free. However, the cancer metastasized to her brain, and she has been undergoing intense treatments for the past 18 months.

Finding boxing helped give Ben a sense of purpose during this difficult time. He has immersed himself in training and fundraising, raising an astonishing $108,000 at the time of this recording and just over $124,000 by the time this will air. Ben will be fighting in Rock ‘N Rumble XIII on May 9, 2024 at the MGM Music Hall at Fenway.

Quotes

(00:01:48): "I lost my father almost 10 years ago, 10 years in July, my mother's a breast cancer survivor and my partner at work passed away Christmas Eve of 2020, so I've had some really close people in my life and there's too many to count who have passed away or battled cancer and um, close as those people are, my wife is dealing with Metastatic breast cancer right now and it's really close to home."

(00:26:25): "It's crazy when you think about it because you're going in that ring alone. You know, your coach is standing there, but they're not in there. You're the one fighting. And yet at the same time, you're carrying every person who either did drills with you or who sparred you, who smacked you in the mouth."

(00:29:50): "I want to win. I want to make people proud of me. Um, I want Amanda to be proud. I want my opponent to, to know that I'm in this for real. This isn't just an activity. I'm doing this. This is very personal. I'm fighting as if Amanda's in there with me."

(00:39:22): "I don't want to wish time away. I'm afraid of these next two months of training come May 10th, I'll be an alum. Um, so I really want to savor this moment. This part of the journey, but after that, that's, that's with me forever."

Resource Links:

Donate to Ben

Donate to Haymakers for Hope

Follow Haymakers on Instagram

Haymakers for Hope is an official 501(c)(3) charity organization that gives you the opportunity to fight back against cancer. They also have charity bibs for races all across the country and host charity golf tournaments.

Not Every Fight Ends at the Bell is presented and produced by Haymakers for Hope. Our producers are former fighters Jordan McMillan and Julian A Lewis II.