By Jessica Nico, Fremantle-Cockburn Gazette
THE purple shirts came off last week as dermatologist Kurt Gebauer visited the Fremantle Dockers to do skin checks on the players and coaching group.
Paul Duffield, Nick Suban, Jay van Berlo, Jack Anthony and coaches and fitness staff had their bodies checked for signs of melanoma.
Clinton Heal, a former Peel Thunder teammate of Hayden Ballantyne, was diagnosed with secondary metastatic melanoma before founding melanomaWA, a community charity partner of the Fremantle Dockers.
Ballantyne is an ambassador for the group.
“Clint has had it tough and even had to play 2006 with no hair because of chemotherapy,” he said.
“We knew he had a cancer, but now the more I understand about skin cancer the more I realise how tough it would have been for him going through the chemo and how hard it would be to play footy while going through that.”
Visit www.melanomawa.org.au for more information on mela-nomas.