NRL 2020: Kurt Mann haunted by mum’s shocking cancer diagnosis
Imagine not being able to hug the person you love most in the world. Now imagine if that person has just four to six months to live. This is the emotional pain Knights star Kurt Mann has been playing with in 2020.
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Life in an NRL bubble is tough, even more so for Newcastle Knights star Kurt Mann who is dealing with the most agonising personal pain.
His mum is fighting cancer and has only four to six months to live.
To make it worse she is in Queensland where not even the most desperate medical situations will allow families to cross the border to be with their loved ones.
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Jane Dickson suffers from a rare form of liver cancer, cholangiocarcinoma.
“You’re a one in a 100,000 chance of getting it,” Mann says, “It’s very aggressive and only seven per cent of sufferers make it past a year.”
The 27-year-old Mr Fix-it has played in every game this year through dreadful emotional pain.
They facetime three or four times a day but it’s not the same.
In round 12 his mum travelled from Warwick to the Sunshine Coast to watch the Knights play Melbourne Storm.
“I wasn’t allowed to give her a hug over the fence because of the COVID protocols,” he said.
“It’s haunted me since then. It was nice to have a chat but it broke my heart at the same time.”
Last week Mann applied to the NRL’s Apollo committee to get a special exemption to visit his mum.
He drove 600 kilometres to Tenterfield in the far north of the state with his partner and one-year-old son to stay in a farmhouse for the week.
The town of Warwick is in the Queensland border bubble which allowed his mum and sister to join them.
It was the most beautiful reunion.
“We stayed in this little homestead about seven kilometres out of town,” Mann said.
“It was so nice to have that time together in such a peaceful place. There was so much to talk about.
“Mum hadn’t seen my little boy for so long apart from facetime.”
It was even more special in that Mann hadn’t been able to make it to Jane’s 60th birthday party in July.
He got home from Tenterfield for the Knights captain’s run on Friday then played against the Roosters on the Sydney Cricket Ground on Saturday night.
Every game, every week, mum is in the back of his mind.
It is so hard when Jane is 650 kilometres away and in her final months.
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There have been many times Mann has wanted to chuck in his football and go home.
Yet the one person stopping him is his mum.
“She won’t have a bar of it,” Mann said, “It’s one of the things she really enjoys watching me play.
“The whole family get around the TV for each game. She’d be pretty cranky if I packed up and went home. It helps me knowing that she loves football. And I know she’s such a fighter. A really tough lady and I’ll be there once the season’s over.”
It makes it easier that his mum is so adamant that he should keep playing.
“She’s such a selfless person who has always put others ahead of herself,” Mann said.
“She was a career nurse for 35 years looking after others.
“It’s the story of mum’s life and I’m so proud, I really am.”
We spoke to Jane on Monday afternoon about her pride in Kurt and what he has achieved in the NRL. The long car trips to schoolboy carnivals and training as a youngster all those years ago.
How on their trip to Tenterfield she cooked his favourite apricot chicken for dinner.
“Footy has been so exciting for us,” she said, “I love it and always have since he was little.
“I’ve just decided to live life the best I can and watching Kurt play is a big part of that.
“I’ve told him I’m not going to die tomorrow. We’ll have our time together after the footy.”