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It's hard to imagine 193cm, 102kg NRL grand final winner and test footballer Steve Price being scared of much.
But he admits to a gripping fear of heights, which he suppressed when climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge in a fundraiser that challenged sports stars to step outside their comfort zone.
That was an ice-breaker for the Warriors captain in more ways than one and he has since been involved in helping young victims of cancer, including now taking on the role of ambassador for the Child Cancer Foundation's Funrazor.
Price and former Kiwis manager Gordon Gibbons will be among those shaving their heads in Auckland's Aotea Square on December 6 to raise money for CCF, which supports child cancer victims and their families.
Yesterday he and Gibbons visited 11-year-old Elijah Periera of Glen Eden who has been fighting acute myeloid leukaemia. The Glenora Bears junior was diagnosed 18 months ago and spent seven months in the Starship hospital before the cancer went into remission.
Six weeks ago it came back and Eli now faces a bone marrow transplant in coming weeks.
Price said meeting a young Bulldogs fan who had been diagnosed with a rare liver cancer in Sydney in 2001, and the friendship they formed over the four years before the boy's death aged 10, had provided him with inspiration and motivation.
Price and the full Warriors team met Eli in the Starship last year and the front rower was back yesterday to offer support. His involvement in the Funrazor last year came about after he was sitting in a doctor's waiting room and saw a poster advertising the event.
"I rang up the Warriors' sponsors and anyone else whose phone number I could get and we ended up raising $20,000," Price said. "I'd love to beat that this year." By yesterday he had $10,500 pledged.
Gibbons was manager of the Kiwis for many years (once convincing coach Frank Endacott to hold training on a lumpy field at Nga Tapuwae College in Mangere where he was caretaker). He now works for Auckland Rugby League.
About 150 New Zealand children are diagnosed with cancer each year and it remains the second-highest cause of child death after vehicle and other accidents. Both men are fathers, Gibbons saying he appreciates his two boys are healthy although he also realises that could all change in a minute.
"Cancer is something that we all encounter in our lives, through one way or another, but when it affects children it is even worse. So this is my very small gesture."
Eli was beaming yesterday after being given a signed Warriors jersey and meeting his hero. "It gives him a real boost, he almost forgets he's sick," said his father Ino.
More than $3000 had been pledged yesterday to see Gibbons go bald, with league mates including the Mad Butcher signed up. All Gibbons' supporters go into a draw to win the chrome plated spade used by Prime Minister Helen Clark to turn the first sod of earth to start the re-development of Carlaw Park. That's a generous offer in itself as Gibbons was married at the halfway line.
Go to the Child Cancer website www.childcancer.org.nz to make donations. Funrazor events will be held at 19 locations throughout New Zealand on Thursday.
