It was hard to wipe a smile off the face of anyone at the Royal Children’s Hospital this morning as Brisbane Roar players Luke Brattan and Matt Mundy visited the surgical wards with club mascot Roary.
Between a tough gym session and afternoon training, the players spent time speaking to the children and posing for photographs, even enjoying a few quiet games of Connect Four with some of the patients.
Brattan and Mundy also made a trip down to the hospital-s Wonder Factory, an interactive entertainment room for kids and their siblings during their stays at, to grasp a better understanding of what life is like for children who spend long periods of time at the hospital.
“It-s good to see the young kids, they obviously go through some fairly tough times so it-s great to see them smiling,” defender Mundy said.
“When you see kids so small and to see how sick they get, it-s sad and can be quite sobering but we-re happy to do our small part in helping in any way we can.”
The visit was made even more special as the visit fell while the club-s Community Football Co-ordinator Rozanne Burley was at the hospital for a week-long stint with her son Adam.
Adam suffers from epilepsy and was at the Royal Children-s Hospital trialling a new treatment called the ketogenic diet, with early signs proving positive for the 10-year-old.
“It-s really nice to see some of the players and Roary in here visiting the kids,” Burley said.
“Their faces light up when they see Roary and a lot of the parents too are still talking about the season and the grand final and how well the team did.
“It-s good for the players to come in and see what these kids are going through.”
