Mark Hughes
Inducted 2023
Mark Hughes was born 15 December 1976 in Kurri Kurri. He played for the Kurri Kurri Bulldogs in their 1995 grand final victory before joining the Newcastle Knights. Mark won two NRL premierships with the Knights in 1997 and 2001 as well as playing State of Origin for the NSW Blues.
In 2013, with a wife and 3 children under 10, Mark’s life changed forever when he was diagnosed with high grade brain cancer. Mark underwent brain surgery to remove an avocado sized tumour at the John Hunter Hospital, Newcastle.
Following surgery he underwent 33 radiation sessions and a 6 month course of chemotherapy. During this time Mark and his wife, Kirralee learnt how underfunded brain cancer was in Australia in comparison to other cancers. The lack of funding meant very little research into brain cancer and, as a result, the mortality rates over the past 30 years hadn’t changed.
In 2014, the Mark Hughes Foundation (MHF) was launched. The MHF mission is to raise much needed funds for research, to create awareness and support brain cancer patients and their families. The first fundraising idea was to sell beanies that patients could wear during treatment. The Beanie for Brain Cancer Campaign has since grown from selling a few hundred beanies locally to joining forces with the National Rugby League to create an annual NRL Beanie for Brain Cancer Round which has seen almost 1 million beanies sold.
To date, MHF has raised close to $30 million and most recently announced a partnership with the University of Newcastle where a $25 million dedicated Brain Cancer Research Centre has been established. The Mark Hughes Foundation Centre for Brain Cancer Research is a multi-disciplinary, collaborative research centre which brings together scientists and clinicians, consumers and patient care professionals and builds on the University of Newcastle’s established and dynamic cancer research ecosystem and world-class technology, spaces and infrastructure.
Mark has accepted this is the journey he’s been given and with that an opportunity to lead the way in making a significant contribution to brain cancer research. Through the Mark Hughes Foundation he can not only repay those who’ve helped him, but also give hope to the many others he has met fighting this terrible disease.
Plaque location
Garden in Rotary Park – Lang Street, Kurri Kurri