When the Goulburn Swans announced their annual Ovarian Cancer Awareness Round last week, they hoped to raise $1,000.
By the end of yesterday's fundraising event, which featured small intra-squad games, skill-based activities, and a barbecue, the club estimated it had raised roughly $7,000.
The online fundraiser, hosted through Ovarian Cancer Australia, is currently sitting at $2,340, while another $3,500 was raised at Goodhew Park yesterday and several payments are still pending.
The Ovarian Cancer Awareness Round was first held in 2018 following the passing of Patricia Clark from the disease.
Her son and Swans player, Andrew, said the support shown by the community was "in a word: overwhelming".
"It's easy to say that I can't believe it, but with this club and community I find it very easy to believe they would go above and beyond and raise this much money for such a good cause," Andrew said.
The event was initially thrown into disarray late last week after the Swans' slated opponents, the Googong Hogs, forfeited due to concerns over the COVID-19 close contact in Goulburn.
However, the cancellation seemingly spurred the club's members to push their fundraising efforts even harder.
"The health and safety of players and their families is absolutely paramount, now more than ever," Andrew said.
"We completely understand their decision to do that. I think, coming from that, everyone pulled their socks up a bit and really wanted to smash this target.
"I think everyone was aware that fundraising might be tough without the game, so they wanted to get together."
After the match was called off, Swans head coach Simon Treloar led from the front to organise the games and activities which would ensure there was still an event around which the club could fundraise.
"Simon Treloar organised a few games and fun skills activities for there to be something fun to do," Andrew said.
"Rather than just standing around waiting for a sausage to cook. Simon was awesome in organising a few fun activities just to get people running around and warmed up."
The emphatic response from the club and the community blew Andrew away, and he said that his mother would have been similarly touched.
"My mum, she'd probably be a bit embarrassed by all the fuss that's still being made about her, but she'd be incredibly touched and proud of the whole community," he said.
"Ovarian cancer sometimes doesn't get as much exposure as it warrants, so Mum would be thrilled that we've put a spotlight on it this week."
The online fundraiser through Ovarian Cancer Australia will remain open for a couple of days, so anybody still wanting to donate can do so here, or by visiting the Goulburn Swans' Facebook page.
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