By Paul Amy, Leader Newspapers
PETER Schwab was a brick-hard footballer, an uncompromising midfielder who got the most out of himself to take his part in the great Hawthorn sides of the 1980s.
But the hits he took on the ground were nothing compared to losing a child to cancer.
Peter and Jenny Schwab's daughter Emily died of a brain tumour in May, 1997.
"She would have turned 20 today," Schwab said last Friday at the South Oakleigh Club, where he was speaking at a fundraising breakfast for the Peter MacCallum Cancer Foundation.
His voice faltered. "Let's be honest, it's a prick of a disease," he said.
But he was pleased to use his family's ordeal in a positive manner, to lend his support to the Southern Football League event.
The SFL organised the breakfast as a show of support for Mt Waverley coach Brad "Bear" Collins, who is recovering from tongue cancer.
About 100 people attended, raising $4000. Thirteen clubs were represented.
Schwab, former Melbourne champion Robbie Flower and ex-Demon defender Anthony Ingerson spoke about their experiences with cancer.
Flower suffered prostate cancer and told how he went for a check-up only after football writer Mike Sheahan mentioned it in the car on the way back from a game of golf.
He said men over the age of 40 needed to be vigilant.
Ingerson is great pals with Melbourne president Jim Stynes. He said he recently talked through a night with Stynes in hospital and came away feeling better about the world. "Jim's just so positive. If he's going to die this year, it's by getting hit by a bus," Ingersen said.
All three speakers also remarked at how richer their lives were for having played football.
It was a theme Collins touched on near the end of the breakfast.
He said a few days after his diagnosis, he went to Mt Waverley and resigned, only for his assistants to say no, that they'd take over until he was better.
Collins said he was having a MRI one day and all he could think about was footy, which team Mt Waverley was playing that week and how he would do his match-ups.
Collins is going well in his recovery. As the turn-out at the breakfast showed, he has many people behind him.
Last Modified on 11/08/2009 13:44