DURING his rugby league career, Mark Hughes had a rare knack for being the right man in the right place at the right time.
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As a skinny teenager barely out of high school, he was tossed onto the wing by Kurri captain-coach Steve Linnane as his home-town team won a Newcastle Rugby League grand final against the widely despised "Maggots" from Western Suburbs.
Two years later, he found himself on a far bigger stage, making his debut for the Newcastle Knights off the bench against Gold Coast Chargers, marking the occasion with a try.
If that all seemed too good to be true, a few months down the track - with just 16 top-grade games to his name - he helped the Knights upset the apparently invincible Manly in the greatest grand final ever played.
Another four years on, Hughes became one of only five Newcastle players - alongside Andrew Johns, Robbie O'Davis, Adam MacDougall and Billy Peden - to celebrate a second premiership triumph.
Over the course of nine NRL seasons, he strung together 161 games, made three State of Origin appearances, and scored 66 tries - the vast majority of which were rewards for simply being where he needed to be, at the exact moment he needed to be there.
Once described as having "the shoulders of a brown snake", Hughes regularly found himself lining up against athletes who were far bigger and faster then he was, but he never once took a backward step and more often than not proved that reputations count for nothing, once you are out on the field.
And he did it all with a self-deprecating brand of humour and a cheeky smile that endeared him to both his teammates and the Novocastrian faithful alike.
Hughesy was a character, a lovable larrakin, but in a team that featured huge personalities like Paul Harragon, Tony Butterfield, the Johns brothers and Ben Kennedy, there was no real need for him to be a leader.
He was happy enough just being one of the boys.
That all changed in 2013, when at the age of 36 - in the prime of his life - he received the shattering news that he had been diagnosed with brain cancer.
After the initial shock, it would have been understandable if Hughes had been overcome by self-pity.
"Why me?" would seem a totally natural reaction.
Instead, along with wife Kirralee, Hughes set about making a difference for others facing the same harrowing predicament.
Together they formed the Mark Hughes Foundation in 2014 to raise money for brain-cancer research, and a simple concept - selling beanies to footy fans once a season - proved an absolute masterstroke.
Initially "Beanies for Brain Cancer" was a Knights promotion, but then Hughes linked with Channel Nine's Matt Callander - a fellow brain-cancer sufferer who has since sadly passed away - and they pitched it to the NRL.
The result has been the spectacular, exponential growth of Beanies for Brain Cancer round, which this weekend celebrates its eighth anniversary and is now promoted by every player and coach in the NRL and recognised by every fan.
Over the course of the past decade, the foundation has sold more than a million beanies and raised $30 million for this most worthy of causes.
Along the way, there have been all manner of other fund-raising initiatives, involving Hughes, former teammates and supporters tackling challenges such as Everest Base Camp, the Kokoda Track, and long-distance hikes and bicycle rides.
I noticed earlier this week that another former sportsman turned philanthropist, Glenn McGrath, was deservedly named in the King's Birthday Honours List, in recognition of his fund-raising efforts with the McGrath Foundation since 2005 for breast-cancer research and support.
It is surely only a matter of time before an unassuming kid from Kurri receives a similar commendation from HRH, Charles III.
Until then, however, it's hats off to Mark Hughes ... or perhaps this weekend that should be hats on.
