Hill takes shield challenge to heart
TODAY means more than defending a shield for University Hawks reserves captain Cameron Hill.
Hill said the third annual Islah’s Sparkle Shield match was about creating awareness of the rare and incurable degenerative disease TaySachs his daughter, Islah Hill, was diagnosed with in 2015.
“Even medical staff we were dealing with at the start didn’t know what we were going through,” Hill said.
“We had absolutely no idea ( what was wrong with Islah).
“When she was about nine months of age we noticed her development skills weren’t quite there.”
Once Islah was diagnosed, Hill was told by medical staff Islah wouldn’t likely make it past her first birthday but said she was now nearly 4- and- a- half years old and every day with her was special.
Today the senior and reserve grade Hawks will swap their traditional Townsville AFL yellow and brown jerseys for purple for the fundraising match against the Northern Beaches Suns.
“( The shield) has stayed with our club for the last two years and hopefully it will stay with us another year,” the Hawks fullback said. “We’ve beaten them ( the Suns) every game this year but every week we have a different team.”
The Hawks sit fourth on the reserve grade ladder, one place above the cellar- dwelling Suns.
The Hawks versus Suns reservegrade game kicks off at 1pm at Castle Hill PCYC followed by the first- grade game at 3pm.
A charity Islah Sparkle High Tea will be held from noon until 3pm, with limited tickets available for $ 50.
In this week’s other fixture, Hermit Park Tigers take on the Curra Swans at Neil French Oval.