Selfless Thurston gesture brightens cancer patient's life
A moving gesture from Johnathan Thurston has brightened the life of an elderly cancer patient, who once opened her home to the NRL star.
There wasn't a dry eye in the house at the Men Of League Gala ball last night, as Thurston again showed why he's the most popular sportsperson in Australia.
The future Immortal is still recovering from season ending shoulder surgery, yet flew from Townsville to Sydney just to surprise 79-year-old Mary Durose.
Mary and her husband Peter opened their home to Thurston when he moved from Queensland to Belmore – in his early days at Canterbury.
Mary fed, counselled, disciplined and nurtured JT along with Nate Myles, Willie Mason, Sonny Bill Williams and hundreds of young players for 22 years in the "Bulldogs House" - set up by the late Peter "Bullfrog" Moore.
"He's a credit to his people but I can tell you we had a lot of lads like him and they came to nothing," Ms Durose said.
Sadly Mary was struck down by mouth cancer in 2003, and her husband Peter was confined to a wheelchair after a series of strokes, and the Bulldogs House was unfortunately shut down.
Mary's cancer has now returned, but Thurston was able to put a smile on her face as they reminisced over those early years that shaped his life.
"I thought my mum had the best spag bol until I tasted Mary's spag bol," Thurston said fondly.
"I always looked forward to that on Friday nights, Mary's spag bol."
Thurston revealed that he came close to quitting the game during his stint at the Bulldogs but with the help of loved ones like Mary, he decided to stick with it.
"I remember being in Ricky Stuart's office crying to go home, he let me go home for a week but Mary made me promise to come back," Thurston recalled.
"He was a man of his word. He was a wonderful man," Ms Durose said.
Picking up the kicking tee for the ball kids, giving away his headgear to fans, helping out the people of Aurukun – Johnathan Thurston is the people's champion - this is the latest example of his greatness.