Club Maitland City Director Treks Vietnam for Mark Hughes Foundation

Since his diagnosis in 2014, Hughes has dedicated his life to raising proceeds for his campaign of finding a cure for brain cancer via the Mark Hughes Foundation (MHF). 

Many NRL fans will know of the famous annual fundraiser, Beanies for Brain cancer. This has become an annual tradition in footy and always leads to thousands of not only beanie sales, but donations as well.

Another avenue for Hughes is to set up gruelling challenges to raise awareness and encourage donations to the MHF. Hughes has captained a team of dozens on many of these treks, including those at Mt Everest, Borneo, Kokoda and outback Australia. 

In October this year, the adventure chosen was cycling through Vietnam and Cambodia. Along for the ride was Club Maitland City director, Frank Lawler.

“I had to go buy a bike just to train for this,” Frank says. 

“I’m certainly no fitness fanatic at all. But that what’s a lot of Mark’s challenges are about. They’ve got to be hard. When people see you’re doing something that’s not just a holiday, they’re happy to get behind it and support it.”

By the end of the 532 kilometres and 27 hours ridden on the bike, the group raised $430,000 — just shy of their $450,000 fundraising target. Club Maitland City contributed $20,000 of that figure.

“Club Maitland City were great,” Frank says. 

“They put in 20 grand as being one of the main sponsors of the event and that was amazing for them to get behind it. I know (Club CEO) Ian Martin’s daughter when she was little had similar issues with cancer so they understand what it can do to families.”

In one day, the group completed 120 kilometres.

“It was tough. It was really tough,” Frank says. 

“We had a couple of accidents along the way, some people were taken to hospital to be X-rayed. All the precautions were taken, but we were going through the back streets of Vietnam. Many were covered with mould and as soon as you hit that your tyres go from underneath you.

“We rode in a lot of heat. We had a couple of guys go down with heat exhaustion and we stopped every hour or two. We had terrific support staff who’d offer drinks and ice blocks and that sort of thing.

“The humidity made it so hot. The temperature was in the mid-30s every day but the humidity I reckon would’ve been high 80s. It wasn’t too bad when you were riding because you’d get a bit of a breeze. But when you’d stop, you’d drop like a bucket of water.”

Frank had much praise for Mark Hughes himself. He led by example, despite having gone through so many health challenges.

“I reckon he would have been the fittest one there,” Frank said. 

“We had one day where we did a 100-kilometre ride and at the end of the day we had this hill which was 2.2 kilometres straight up. About a 10-to-16-degree incline. Eight of the guys got to the top without having a stop. And he won that easily.”

Despite the challenges, Frank revelled in the experience. 

“It was amazing riding basically through people’s backyards and even though they had nothing, they all come out smiling and happy to see you,” Frank says. 

“It was absolutely awesome.”

Clubs can donate to the Mark Hughes Foundation and find out about future treks here.