PORT ADELAIDE is doing its bit to help eradicate breast cancer deaths by 2030 with the playing group donating $5,000 to the National Breast Cancer Foundation.
The donation came after Power co-captain Tom Jonas was inspired by a friend’s fundraising efforts after the death of a family member.
Andreanna Belperio started raising funds for the National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF) in December, promising to shave her head in front of family and friends in May if they helped her raise $30,000.
In the end she passed $65,000 by then and has continued to collect donations for NBCF in honour of her mother-in-law Rose Belperio who lost her battle with breast cancer in January.
“I watched someone close to me go through it and it changed me as a person - it definitely broke something inside of me that will never come back,” Ms Belperio told portadelaidefc.com.au.
“It was my mother-in-law so to see my husband and my father-in-law and the pain they went through, I don’t want anyone else to go through that so if I can help in any way then I will.
“To see the generosity of people has been the best part of this whole experience and Tom and the boys are just part of that.”
Port Adelaide’s donation to Andreanna and NBCF was made by Jonas in front of teammates after training on Wednesday at Adelaide Oval.
Under the AFL Players Care initiative, players contribute $50 of their match fee each week towards charities.
Half of the money is donated to the AFL Players’ Association official charity partner, Ladder, to tackle youth homelessness, while the rest is contributed to the AFL Players Care fund which is then distributed to clubs so that players can support other charities they are passionate about.
Jonas explained that it was easy to convince his teammates to contribute to Andreanna’s fundraising efforts once they heard about how much work she had done.
“We know each other through mutual friends and through school.
“She’s been touched by breast cancer through her mother-in-law so we thought as the playing group it would be good to present the National Breast Cancer Foundation with a cheque for $5000.
“She’s done a lot of great work on her own, having raised $83,000 on her lonesome and with the support of her community so we thought it would be good to contribute to that.
“It’s always nice to give back to people that have been affected, rather than give to something we’re not as connected with so over the course of the last few years we’ve been able to do that and make a bit of a difference.”
Andreanna’s $83,000 contribution so far had the NBCF’s Director of Research Investment, Dr Chris Pettigrew in awe.
“It’s phenomenal,” he said after being presented with Port Adelaide’s donation.
“To set out with a goal to raise $30,000 is ambitious enough but to blow that out of the water and get $83,000 has just blown us away, it’s really inspirational.
“It all helps get us that little bit closer to our goal of zero deaths to breast cancer by 2030 and it will hopefully inspire others to make their own contribution.”
