New Zealand Warriors forward Jazz Tevaga has made an incredible financial pledge to help a former junior Warriors' teammate who is battling an aggressive and rare form of cancer.
Roman Tuhimata, who was part of the Warriors' junior system alongside Tevaga and has remained close friends with the one-club player, has been diagnosed with desmoplastic small round cell tumors (DSRCT) sarcoma.
Tevaga has revealed that he will donate $100 to a "GiveALittle" page which has been set up for Tuhimata for every mistake he makes during the 2023 season - that includes missed tackles, errors and penalties conceded.
Tevaga will also be hoping to hit the scoresheet as often as possible, revealing that he will donate $500 for every try he scores during 2023.
The Warriors forward shared a post on Instagram to share the story, with Tuhimata set to undergo eight months of chemotherapy. Tevaga will shave his head for the duration of the treatment while also being set to run a half marathon in April, and a full marathon at the completion of the NRL season in October to raise more money.
Tevaga wrote in the post that Tuhimata has been working through months of pain after failing to be diagnosed.
"Roman is 27yrs old. In Late November 2022 he was diagnosed with a very rare & aggressive cancer - DSRCT Sarcoma. Which is located in the abdomen." he wrote.
"Roman endured months of pain and discomfort while working, eventually forcing him to wear his tool belt around his neck.
"Multiple trips to A&E and to the hospital resulted in being discharged prematurely, after conducting many different tests.
"Once the seriousness of the situation was realised, a PET scan showed the tumour that began in his abdomen, had now spread to his liver & spleen resulting in a stage 4 cancer diagnosis.
"Now facing the fight for his future, Roman has his second round of chemo underway with many more cycles lined up."
I hope Jazz and the Warriors take financial advice over this. Ideally the Warriors would dock all the contributions from Jazz’s pre-tax pay (so he isn’t paying out of taxed earnings) and send the money to Roman’s GoFundMe page (which should not attract Income Tax).
If the NZ tax laws work that way then it could be possible to get the full amount to Roman with no income tax being paid by either Jazz or Roman.
Technicalities of the transfer aside, I have to applaud the behaviour of Jazz. We read nearly every day of players behaving like spoiled children, and it is refreshing to hear of a man standing up for another who is suffering through no fault of his own.