THE Sydney Cricket Ground is awash in pink for the twelfth Domain Pink Test in support of the McGrath Foundation, which started today, January 3, 2020.
Now in its twelfth year, the Pink Test is one of the largest sporting fundraising initiative in Australia where the cricket community, both on and off the field, wear pink as a symbolic show of support for those experiencing breast cancer and raise much needed funds for the McGrath Foundation.
Holly Masters, McGrath Foundation CEO said: “Each year, The McGrath Foundation and Cricket Australia create a commemorative pink bandana which is sold to help raise funds for McGrath Breast Care Nurses.
“At the last Pink Test, cricket fans purchased 60,000 bandanas to help raise over $200,000 – around a quarter of total funds raised during the Test,” Ms Masters said.
All funds raised go to provide a breast cancer nurse to help families like Kat’s. When Kat was diagnosed with breast cancer for the second time, it rocked her family to the core.
Treatment was made even harder because she had to juggle the needs of her four young children, with all of their after school sports; netball and AFL, training, games and weekend carnivals.
Her McGrath Breast Care Nurse, Sally Haley, was there to help ease the administrative nightmare of organising appointments in school hours and provided her with the medical knowledge and emotional support she needed to make the best decisions for her and her family.
The Australian and New Zealand teams are wearing black armbands and pay tribute to Fire and Emergency Services personnel during the Domain Pink Test.
It’s one of several initiatives, supported by the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) Trust and the McGrath Foundation. If the McGrath Foundation meets its 2020 Test match target of $1.6 million raised, that will fund a further 12 breast care nurses for 12 months which McGrath acknowledged was just 10 per cent of the current requirement for those healthcare professionals.
Fundraising for the bushfire relief and recovery effort will be conducted at the SCG when the Australia and New Zealand teams reconvene for ODI matches in March, to which those currently involved in the firefighting effort will be admitted free of charge if they’re able to attend.
“The SCG Test comes and goes in the next few days, but our support for bushfire relief and the work that the (firefighters) are doing, that doesn’t come and go,” Cricket Australia Chief Executive Officer Kevin Roberts said.
“We all love the SCG Test, it’s one of the greatest events on the international sporting calendar every year.
“But the reality is it pales into insignificance when you compare it to the devastation of the bushfires that are raging around the country, when you compare it to the biggest drought in our lifetime, or when you compare it to the many thousands of women around Australia who have lost their lives to breast cancer over the years.
“That helps us keep things in perspective.”
To donate to the McGrath Foundation please visit: www.pinktest.com.au
Ryan Fritz
Ryan Fritz started The Advocate in 2014 to provide not-for-profits and charities another media platform to tell their worthwhile hard news stories and opinion pieces effortlessly. In 2020, Ryan formed a team of volunteer journalists to help spread even more high-quality stories from the third sector. He also has over 10 years experience as a media and communications professional for not-for-profits and charities and currently works at Redkite, a childhood cancer charity.
