A warmly received wellbeing visit for ‘Snowy’

Acting upon a request received from Paul Medd, President of the Upper Hunter Committee, Northern Sydney Wellbeing Officers, Ken Vessey and Fred Jackson, had the pleasure to visit Nathan “Snowy” Burgess in Sydney where he had recently commenced chemotherapy for leukaemia.

Nathan was surprised and delighted by our visit and in response to the question, “Where did he get the nickname Snowy from”, he told us when he was young he had very snowy hair.

We exchanged conversation with him about the lifestyle differences of living/working at his parent’s sheep & cattle station in Coolah compared to us living in Sydney with an estimated population of over 5 million people.

He told us that he had played rugby league whilst attending Yanco Agricultural High School, continued with Dunedoo/Coolah rugby league clubs and that he follows the St.George Illawarra Dragons.

Nathan spoke fondly of his wife Martine and his three children Tom, Hugh and Georgie, who visit him as much as possible. He told us about how tough the drought has been in the country and could not express his sincere thanks enough for all of the assistance that the Australian community has provided to drought affected areas and families.

We presented Nathan with a Men of League Foundation polo shirt and wished him a speedy and successful recovery; in return he thanked us for our visit, our thoughts and the gift.

By Ken Vessey.