Chris Mayne knows what it’s like to spend time in hospital as a child.
The trauma involved with long stays, and the added strain it courses the many parents who spend their children’s formative years in and out of care.
So when the former Docker was presented with the opportunity to help out the Starlight Children’s Foundation, he leaped at the chance.
“Being born with a cleft palete and spending a lot of time at Princess Margaret Hospital, which is where the Starlight Children’s Foundation was, it had a really special spot in my heart and that’s why I wanted to jump on board,” Mayne told AFLPlayers.com.au at the Royal Children’s Hospital, earlier this week.
It was 2008 when he first got on board, and he has maintained his role with the charity in Melbourne since crossing over to the Magpies at the end of 2016.
Through his passion, Mayne and the Collingwood playing group have pledged $5,000 of their AFL Players Care funds to the Starlight Foundation.
Click here to watch the Magpies make Jarryd’s day
AFL Players Care is the players’ official charity initiative and was established in 2014 when the male playing group voted to increase their match fee charity contributions from $25 to $50 per player, per game.
While $25 per game per player is still donated to the AFL Players’ official charity partner, Ladder, to help tackle youth homelessness, an additional $25 per game per player is now contributed to the AFL Players Care fund.
$180,000 of this fund is then equally distributed among all 18 male AFL clubs each season giving each team the opportunity to support one or two charities of they are passionate about.