It shows the power of rugby league – a target of 100,000 Beanies for Brain Cancer sold to raise about $1.75 million to help find a cure.
The Canberra Raiders and Manly Sea Eagles will run out wearing Mark Hughes Foundation beanies at Canberra Stadium on Friday night, before giving them to some lucky fans in the crowd.
It's all part of NRL Beanie for Brain Cancer round – the brain child of Hughes, the Newcastle Knights premiership centre who was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2013.
Former Newcastle Knights premiership player Mark Hughes hopes to sell more than 100,000 beanies for NRL Beanie for Brain Cancer round.
He travelled to Brisbane for the Broncos-Parramatta Eels game on Thursday night, will be in Townsville for the North Queensland-Melbourne Storm clash on Friday and then Newcastle Knights against Cronulla on Sunday.
Hughes has been overwhelmed by the support from the rugby league community.
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"It's very powerful to see the players, especially our leading players in the game, wearing their beanies, putting it on their Instagram … with a smile on their face, it's very overwhelming," he said.
"It's an example of the power of the rugby league community – from the NRL, to all the media, just the supporters of rugby league and especially the players that buy in to this as well, it's just like a tidal wave of support.
"Last year blew us away and we're so excited and can't wait to see this week unfold."
That last year Hughes was talking about saw about 100,000 beanies sold, which he thought raised about $1.75 million to help find a cure for the deadly disease.
He credited Matt Callander, the former Channel Nine boss who died of brain cancer last year, for the big success and was hopeful it could be bettered this year.
Hughes revealed the shocking statistics for brain cancer, a disease that has just a two per cent survival rate.
A disease that kills more children than any other disease.
"There's a real purpose to buying a beanie – brain cancer's the biggest cancer killer for people 40 years and under, and children 10 years and under," Hughes said.
"Outcomes haven't changed in 20 years so we need to start fixing that up for people like myself and so many people out there that need answers.
"You're buying a beanie, but you're chipping in to help us with the research that's hopefully one day going to find a cure to this problem."
NRL ROUND 12
Friday: Canberra Raiders v Manly Warringah Sea Eagles at Canberra Stadium, 6pm. Tickets from Ticketek.
Raiders squad: 1. Jack Wighton, 2. Nick Cotric, 3. Jarrod Croker (c), 4. Joseph Leilua, 5. Jordan Rapana, 6. Blake Austin, 7. Aidan Sezer, 8. Dunamis Lui, 9. Siliva Havili, 10. Shannon Boyd, 11. Josh Papalii, 12. Elliott Whitehead, 13. Iosia Soliola. Interchange: 14. Ata Hingano, 15. Luke Bateman, 16. Charlie Gubb, 17. Liam Knight, 18. Emre Guler, 19. Michael Oldfield, 20. Sam Williams, 21. Craig Garvey.
Sea Eagles squad: 1. Tom Trbojevic, 2. Jorge Taufua, 3. Moses Suli, 4. Brian Kelly, 5. Akuila Uate, 6. Trent Hodkinson, 7. Daly Cherry-Evans (c), 8. Addin Fonua-Blake, 9. Lewis Brown, 10. Martin Taupau, 11. Joel Thompson, 12. Shaun Lane, 13. Jake Trbojevic. Interchange: 14. Matthew Wright, 15. Frank Winterstein, 16. Lloyd Perrett, 17. Toafofoa Sipley, 18. Thomas Wright, 19. Bradley Parker, 20. Jack Gosiewski, 21. Tevita Funa.
David Polkinghorne covers the Canberra Raiders, local rugby league, Canberra Cavalry, racing and cycling, along with every other sport, for The Canberra Times.
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