{"id":575611,"date":"2026-03-31T04:43:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:43:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/575611\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:43:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:43:19","slug":"chris-penk-to-fight-boxing-bout-fundraising-for-helensville-local-legends-cancer-treatment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/575611\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Penk to fight boxing bout fundraising for Helensville \u2018local legend\u2019s\u2019 cancer treatment"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"NationalNational MP and Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk will take part in a boxing match at the Original Kaipara Tavern. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

Cummings said Cooper was a pillar in the Helensville community. <\/p>\n

\u201cFrom Cape R\u0113inga to the Bluff, all these small towns have got these local legends that do so much for the community and in Helensville, Tony Cooper\u2019s ours. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s driven the fire truck for 35 years, and he\u2019s coached rugby, waka ama and tennis. But all that aside, he\u2019s just a top bloke.\u201d <\/p>\n

His diagnosis had \u201crocked\u201d the community, Cummings said. <\/p>\n

Cooper\u2019s Givealittle page<\/a> said chemotherapy and costly therapy drugs, not fully covered by the public system, were required to treat his cancer. <\/p>\n

Cooper told the Herald the support amid the hard time was \u201coverwhelming\u201d and that he planned to attend the event. <\/p>\n

The minister will don the moniker of \u201cThe Penk Panther\u201d, with the theme music from the Pink Panther film playing when he walks to the ring. <\/p>\n

Penk said his training for the bout was best described as \u201csporadic\u201d. <\/p>\n

\"BuildingBuilding and Construction Minister Chris Penk is fighting in a boxing match in Helensville on April 4. Photo \/ RNZ, Nick Monro<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve done a few runs when I\u2019ve had time, but it\u2019s also not easy to fit in a regular fitness schedule. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not convinced I\u2019m on the path to any kind of professional boxing career off the back of this.\u201d <\/p>\n

The publican himself will fight too under the name Andy \u201cCrusher\u201d Cummings. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s going to be tough for me because I\u2019ve been on the Guinness and pizza diet for the last 14 months.\u201d <\/p>\n

Risks associated with charity boxing events<\/p>\n

Last year, Coroner Heather McKenzie recommended tightening of rules and regulations surrounding corporate\/charity boxing events<\/a> after an inquest into the death of Kain Parsons in 2018. <\/p>\n

Parsons died three days after taking part in a Christchurch charity boxing event, where he sustained 29 significant blows to the head in less than three minutes. <\/p>\n

Penk said he was confident in the event\u2019s safety, as adequate gear will be worn and the matches will be well refereed. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think [the] risks are mitigated well in this case, with safety equipment such as headgear and mouthguards, obviously boxing gloves as opposed to some sort of looser arrangement in terms of fighting, means that it\u2019s going to be perfectly safe.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing in life is without risk, so I\u2019m not planning to come to any physical harm, just as I\u2019m not planning to get hit by a bus when I next cross the road.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"National MP and Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk will take part in a boxing match at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":575612,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,5975,802,22674,1617,16806,282288,11758,1913,580,3321,16493,141657,26431,322,50029,187,206927,282287,81610,85,32288,222413,320,319,2284,1050],"class_list":["post-575611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bout","tag-boxing","tag-building","tag-cancer","tag-chris","tag-constituents","tag-construction","tag-fight","tag-for","tag-fundraising","tag-gloves","tag-helensville","tag-legends","tag-local","tag-minister","tag-money","tag-panther","tag-penk","tag-raise","tag-sports","tag-suit","tag-swap","tag-the","tag-to","tag-treatment","tag-will"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}