A CHEPSTOW man has raised £560 for charity after recovering from a serious injury sustained two years ago which made him temporarily lose his passion for exercising.

Robert Simpson, 18, of Brunel Road, took part in an intensive 10-week boxing boot camp based at the Impact gym in Bristol.

But he decided to ask people to help him out with fundraising after his father, Dave, had a cancer scare late last year.

It was the first time he had exercised intensively after suffering a knee ligament injury when he was 16.

And the former Chepstow School pupil asked people to donate to his efforts for Cancer Research.

Although he said the intensity of the course “destroyed” him, he said he was proud he had managed to raise money through his exercising.

The course ran twice a week, on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, and the middleweight boxer won a bout held as part of the course in the second round.

And he said he is keen to carry on exercising and is looking into trying a mixed martial arts (MMA) course in Bulwark in the near future.

He said he had definitely lost weight during the course and could see the effect the weight loss had to his face.

His family were told Mr Simpson had bladder cancer after appointments at Nevill Hall Hospital in Abergavenny. But after an operation at the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport, they were told he was suffering from an inflammation of the bladder.

The father and son work together and run their own landscape gardening business.