Hugo Kulcsar beats battle with cancer, with help from Wallabies legend Owen Finegan
Blood clots on the brain and burnt hands could not prevent brave Hugo Kulcsar from beating cancer and making it to his 18th birthday. This is how he won the fight, with some help from a Wallabies legend.
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“I was in maths class, I felt my hair and I felt a lump in the back of my head. I thought, this is not right.”
Little did he know, 11-year-old Hugo Kulcsar’s world was about to cave in.
He played rugby that Friday night in June 2018, and on Saturday, then completed representative training on the Sunday.
Exhausted, he mentioned his fatigue to mum Denai. By Tuesday, while getting blood tests, Hugo fainted.
“So I had to wait until the Wednesday morning, they took it, and then at 4.30 that afternoon, they called mum and said, ‘You’ve got a rush up, he is not in a good way.”
Hugo had leukaemia.
“Receiving that news was just an absolute shock,” Hugo said.
“Especially since my grandfather had it for 10 years, and he died three years prior to when I got diagnosed. So I knew what it does, what it can do to you.”
So began the arduous process of chemotherapy, during which Hugo developed a 15cm blood clot in his brain.
“I went in and I weighed 46kg, and then I was down to 34kg, I weighed nearly less than my sister who is two years younger than me, it was crazy,” Hugo said.
“And I got the side effects. I had a 15cm blood clot in my brain just two weeks into the treatment. They told me there is only a one per cent chance of that happening, but I got that.
“There’s only a one per cent chance of getting third degree burns too, but I got that. My hands were just completely burnt.”
But six years later, Hugo is cancer-free, has just celebrated his 18th birthday, and is getting ready to play for Randwick’s under-18s side in Saturday’s semi-final, looking to make the decider and defend the premiership they won last year.
His recovery was helped by money raised through the Kids’ Cancer Project, led by Wallabies legend Owen Finegan.
The 1999 World Cup winner auctioned off his jersey from that match, in which Finegan scored a try in the 80th minute to lead the Wallabies to a 35-12 win over France, as well as his 2001 Brumbies premiership jersey.
Finegan has known Hugo since he was seven, with his own son playing alongside Hugo for the Coogee Seahorses club.
“I’m really proud of how resilient he is,” said Finegan, who also coaches Hugo.
“He’s a great kid, in our community of sport he has inspired others just by the perseverance he’s shown, his resilience and his will to get back. But also the attitude he has with his teammates and what he offers teams.
“The community around him was right behind him, supporting him, and now he’s out there doing his thing and making them proud, it’s been amazing.”
A major part of Hugo’s fight back to full health was his deep passion for rugby.
“When I first asked the doctors how long it would be before I could play again, they said ‘Two years’, and I was like, ‘OK, I’ll be back in Year 9,” the Waverley student said.
“They kind of looked at me like, ‘You know you have a really long, tough road ahead of you?’ And I just had my mind set that, yep, I would be back playing rugby in Year 9.”
Early in his treatment phase, his father Frankie would take him for beach walks, that eventually turned into light jogs and then runs.
Hugo received from his local and wider community.
During his recovery, Hugo was visited by Brad Fittler’s NSW State of Origin team in 2018.
Many of his Seahorses, Randwick teammates and Waverley schoolmates also shaved their hair.
“I’ve literally seen him training and running up hills at Coogee Beach, and he’s at the front of the pack, not at the back,” Finegan said.
“And you would allow him to be at the back because he’s recovering from cancer, but he’s that inspirational kid up the front and he’s pushing himself, trying to get the best out of himself.”
And true to his word, Hugo returned to the rugby field in Year 9.
The inside centre scored two tries in his comeback match, and has since won premierships and this year even played above his age group for the Randwick under-20s team.
Hugo is also in the second year of his carpenter’s apprenticeship.
Finegan says Hugo is the “poster boy” for how young cancer survivors can conquer the disease, and the 18-year-old is now an ambassador for the 2024 Better Challenge.
“The idea is that you run, ride, roll three kilometres a day for the 30 days of September,” Finegan said.
“It’s called the Better Challenge for better outcomes, better support. September is childhood cancer awareness month and the 90km across the month represents the 90 children that will be diagnosed with cancer each month, so we’re encouraging people to get out and walk three kilometres a day and join the Better Challenge and raise money and awareness for childhood cancer research.”
Hugo said: “I want kids to have better treatment so they don’t have as many challenges coming out of it.
“Giving back to the Kids’ Cancer Project, I’m very happy to do it all the time. It’s great to see how much better the treatment is getting, it’s good to see kids coming back better than ever.”
Finegan said research, and access to domestic and international cancer treatment trials were the two key factors in why survival rates have increased dramatically in the past 30 years.
But with more than 1000 Australian children being diagnosed with cancer each year, the battle is relentless to ensure most get the same positive outcome as Hugo.
So the Kids’ Cancer Project has committed $7.623 million to fund 24 cancer researchers, as well as PhD scholars.
The Col Reynolds Fellowship – named to honour their founder – were announced this week.
The successful candidates, along with their institutes are:
Early Career Researchers:
• Dr Aaminah Khan, Children’s Cancer Institute
• Dr David Mizrahi, The University of Sydney
• Dr Karin Plummer, Griffith University
• Dr Evangeline Jackson, University of Newcastle
• Dr Michelle Tennant, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute
Mid-Career Researchers:
• Dr Kenny Ip, Children’s Cancer Institute
• Dr Katherine Pillman, the University of South Australia
• Dr Teresa Sadras, the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
• Dr Noa Lamm-Shalem, the Children’s Medical Research Institute
• Dr Ryan Cross, The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research
• Dr Emmy Fleuren, Children’s Cancer Institute
Clinical Fellowships – Clinical and Allied Health:
• Dr Marion Mateos, University of New South Wales
• Dr Joseph Yuan-Mou Yang, the Royal Children’s Hospital
• Miss Noemi Fuentes-Bolanos, Children’s Cancer Institute
• Dr Rachael Lawson, Children’s Health Queensland
• Ms Rachel Edwards, Queensland University of Technology
The PhD Top Up Scholarship recipients are:
• Phillip Graber, Children’s Cancer Institute
• Jacqueline Hunter, the University of Melbourne
• Megumi Hui Ai Lim, Queensland Institute of Technology
• Dr Hannah Walker, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute
• Lorna McLeman, St Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research
• Bryce Thomas, University of Newcastle
• Chelsea Valentin, The Sydney Children’s Hospital Network.
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