The GOLD round has become a well loved and supported round at FHFC bringing players and the football community together to help children fighting cancer and their families. Over the years most of the SFL clubs have been part of the Gold round at FHFC and it has been a cause close to the hearts of their members too, as many have had their own players affected by childhood cancer. This year the SFL is asking all clubs to support this important cause.

The GOLD ribbon represents childhood cancer in a similar way to the pink ribbon for breast cancer. Gold was chosen as children are so precious.

To raise awareness we would ask A Grade players to wear GOLD (yellow) armbands to honour those children that have lost their lives to cancer and to raise awareness for childhood cancer.

As a simple but important way to show support, players and supporters would be asked for a GOLD coin donation on the day to support research into more effective and kinder treatments for children with cancer. 100% of the money raised would be donated to Neuroblastoma Australia.

Neuroblastoma is an aggressive childhood cancer and survival rates for the aggressive types are only 50%. Children diagnosed with neuroblastoma are on average just 2 years old.
Typically, when diagnosed with Neuroblastoma a child begins 18 months of frontline treatment that includes chemotherapy, surgery, stem cell transplant, radiation and immunotherapy. Treatments that have lifelong side effects and can themselves be fatal.

We urgently need better, safer and kinder treatments for children diagnosed with neuroblastoma and the only way to achieve this is through supporting the very best research. Neuroblastoma Australia is an Australian charity that funds research into more effective treatments for Neuroblastoma. The charity has a vision of a world where every child diagnosed with Neuroblastoma gets to grow up and live a long and healthy life without side effects. The founder Lucy Jones lost her daughter Sienna at 2 years old. Natalie Bunworth