SHIMNA College teacher James Magee has raised funds for the Cancer Fund for Children’s Daisy Lodge centre near Newcastle after he raffled off a boxing glove signed by world and European champions. James, whose father, Noel Magee, is a former Irish amateur and Commonwealth title holder, is a huge boxing fan.
He started his own podcast, focusing on Irish fighters, in September 2022, with Noel acting as his first guest. Since then the podcast, named ‘Tales from the Ring’, has featured multiple Irish, European, Commonwealth and world title holders. James explained he first had the idea of raffling off a signed boxing glove when travelling to interview local legend Dave “Boy” McCauley for a new podcast episode. “The first time I got the idea I was going to see Dave “Boy” McCauley, a world champion in the early ‘90s. I brought along a pair of gloves for him to sign and I said to myself that I’d do a raffle somewhere along the line. “Then I did another podcast with Olympic silver medallist and world champion Wayne McCullough, over a Zoom call, because he lives in Las Vegas. “He came back about two months ago to Belfast for a week, he texted me and asked me to meet face to face and I brought the gloves with me for him to sign. “It turned out when I went up to meet Wayne, Carl Frampton was also there, because they’re friends. I was in their company for half an hour and Carl Frampton ended up signing the glove as well. “I decided to keep one of the gloves for myself as a memento and raffle away the other one.” The Newcastle man sold all 70 spaces on a fundraising scratch card in the space of four days, raising £350 in the process.
The lucky winner was George Sloan, who is now the proud owner of a glove signed by some very well-known names in boxing; Carl Frampton, Wayne McCullough, Dave McAuley, Noel Magee, Roy Webb and Joe Lowe. For James, it was an easy decision to donate the proceeds to the Cancer Fund for Children charity. “Cancer Fund for Children is a charity that my school (Shimna College) is doing fundraising for this year,” he said. “There was a presentation in Assembly about a month ago, explaining the work that the charity does and that’s when I thought to myself, ‘that’s who I’ll do it for’, they’re a brilliant charity and it’s amazing what they do.”
As for the ‘Tales from the Ring’ podcast, it’s going from strength to strength, having been downloaded over 10,000 times across various platforms since the first episode was released in September 2022. “I’ve been trying to mix my guests up a bit more; boxers at the start of their career, boxers in the middle of their career and boxers that have completed their career. “At the start I was only getting boxers on that had retired but now I’ve opened the podcast up to younger boxers, they’re on social media, so they’re a lot more accessible. That’s been a big game-changer. “For other podcasts that would be nothing (reaching 10,000 downloads) but for me that was a big milestone to be honest. It was very small at the start, it’s gradually built and I’m really pleased with the way it’s went,” the Shimna College ICT teacher explained.
If you would like to listen to the ‘Tales from the Ring’ podcast, you can listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5u7acDFlldJJ8rM aMw8Igr, Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/talesfrom-the-ring or Audible: https://www.audible.co.uk/podcast/Tales-fromthe-Ring/B0BJJ377YS. For more information on the Daisy Lodge centre and the work that Cancer Fund for Children does, visit the charity’s website at: https://cancerfundforchildren.com
