Meet The Team
Volunteers
Daniel Barton - Mentalmate Founder and Trainer
I started up Mentalmate following battles with my own mental health issues, 1 of my main coping mechanisms was boxing. Boxing allowed me to clear my head and relieve some stress and anxiety whilst also building up my physical fitness. In January 2020 I decided to start Mentalmate as I wondered how many other people felt the same as me. How many other people would enjoy getting together and doing some boxing and talking? I have a keen interest in Kickboxing and Boxing (obviously)
Peter Roy
I have 14 years experience of boxing. I started training with an amateur boxer in Oxford in 2009, to lose weight, initially. I lost 10kg over 6 months, but I also found that I preferred the intensity of boxing compared to the non-contact martial arts I had practised in my 20s, and I noticed how much better I felt, physically and mentally, during and after training. I have struggled with anxiety and depression throughout my adult life, so the combination of boxing and mental health awareness that Mental Mate promotes felt like a natural fit when I started coming to the Sunday sessions after lockdown in 2021. The majority of people who come to Mental Mate have never done any boxing before, so I decided to qualify with the Hatton Boxing Academy as a boxing for fitness coach in 2023 so that I could start to do more structured pad work in the adult classes, and also start up a family session for parents and carers to do boxing for fitness workouts together with their children. I really enjoy teaching beginners the fundamentals of boxing, and I promote safe, simple, and fun training techniques and conditioning routines. In addition to boxing, I also enjoy other sports, such as jump rope (skipping), flow rope, gymnastics, and yoga.
Debbie Mathews
Richard Ibbotson
