Author Description

<p>When Ron suggested to his wife that he wanted to leave his well-paid job with the state government so that he could help people become fit and healthy, her reaction was, "Who the hell would pay you to do that?"</p><p>"I don't know," he replied. "But let's make it work."</p><p>So began The Centre for Lifelong Health and Fitness in Mt Eliza, a pretty bayside community on the Mornington Peninsula, one hour south of Melbourne, Victoria.</p><p>And so continued Ron's journey towards his own health, fitness and personal growth, a path that hasn't always been straightforward. In fact, Ron was told in his mid-thirties that if he didn't improve his lifestyle, he probably wouldn't live to see forty.</p><p>Ron heeded that severe wake-up call and, over the next year, managed to stop drinking completely and lose almost 30 kilograms of unhealthy weight.</p><p>Then he started running marathons. Not long after that it was ultramarathons.</p><p>This sounds like an extraordinary attitude change, until you learn that Ron had won three Victorian amateur boxing championships in his youth. He had indeed trialled for the Commonwealth Games and the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games.</p><p>Here was a complex, sometimes flawed individual with massive energy, an addictive personality, and not always the right outlets to showcase the best version of himself.</p><p>The Boxer is Ron's story, told in his own words. Another remarkable achievement from a kid who left school aged just 13 with a dream of being a jockey, who got in trouble with the law and discovered boxing at the Police Youth Boys Club, and who as a young man survived the manic world of high-rise construction and rose through the ranks to become a site foreman and eventually a government safety inspector.</p><p>Throughout this heartwarming book, Ron's shares his sometimes wild journey with great candour. He also shares, amongst his personal battles with alcohol, guilt and poor choices, the struggle to be a good husband, father and family ma