The Aquis Gold Coast Titans have been an enthusiastic supporter of The Leukaemia Foundation since the inception of the club in 2007.
It is important, and also personal for us with former player and current sponsorship executive Luke O’Dwyer, losing his brother Ryan at age 12 in 1998.
Each year at the Titans first home game of the season the O’Dwyer Shield is contested at half-time of NRL and NYC matches between two local primary schools St. Joseph's and St. James. Ryan attended St Joseph’s while Luke attended both schools.
The Leukaemia Foundation’s biggest annual fund-raising campaign is the World’s Greatest Shave – which takes place from March 10-13 - where thousands of people shave or colour their hair and raise an enormous amount of money for the Foundation.
The Titans’ ‘Hair Bears’ who have gathered a big following with their weekly website segment – Eddy Pettybourne, Agnatius Paasi and Leivaha Pulu – plus Josh Hoffman and Leva Li will colour their hair blue today to mark the occasion, while teammate Matt Robinson will colour his beard.
We will have a colouring booth on the precinct at Cbus Super Stadium on Sunday and fans can have their hair sprayed blue and yellow for a gold coin donation.
The Titans will also be hosting three South-East Queensland-based Leukaemia patients and their families in our corporate facilities thanks to Aquis kindly donating their suite to give these families a very special day.
Philippa Bagnall, the Leukaemia Foundation’s Gold Coast Community fundraising officer, says the Titans support will provide a huge boost to World’s Greatest Shave.
“Every single day another 34 Aussies are told they have a blood cancer and it’s inspiring to see the Titans and Gold Coast community lining up together to help families impacted by a diagnosis,” she said.
“Shaving or colouring your hair, just like the players did today, is a small sacrifice but the money raised can make a big difference to the lives of blood cancer patients on the Gold Coast.”
To sign up to World’s Greatest Shave go to www.worldsgreatestshave.com.
