Australia and West Indies to raise funds for the McGrath foundation

Starting off the new year with a noble gesture, the Australian cricket team and their Frank-Worrell Trophy opponents have agreed to raise $380,000 from the traditional New Year Test at Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) for the McGrath foundation in order to increase awareness about the need to prevent breast cancer, and place the McGrath Breast Care Nurses throughout the country.

Australia’s second highest Test wicket taker, Glenn McGrath, who is the Chairman and the President of the charitable organization, presented the Australian squad members with the baggy pink caps ahead of the traditional Pink Test, the third day of which is now observed as the Jane McGrath day.

This Test between Australia and West Indies would be the eighth one of such Tests, a tradition that had begun in 2009, to remember McGrath’s wife Jane, who succumbed to breast cancer after a long fight against it in June 2008.

The fundraising target was set, specifically looking at the need for breast cancer nursing services, of which Australia faces a shortfall.

"With 43 Australians diagnosed with breast cancer every day there is critical and continuing need for more McGrath Breast Care Nurses to support families through breast cancer," McGrath said. "This year we've set our Pink Test fundraising goal at $380,000, which will fund one new McGrath Breast Care Nurse for three years."

Beginning every year on January 3, the Pink Test held at the SCG has become an iconic event wherein the entire stadium goes pink to raise awareness against the menace of breast cancer and place the McGrath Breast Care Nurses in communities all over Australia.

"We're incredibly proud to be supporting the McGrath Foundation, with the Pink Test in Sydney now truly one of the great occasions on the Australian sporting calendar," said the Cricket Australia chief, James Sutherland.

"Every year we're amazed by the overwhelming support the Pink Test generates for the Foundation and its important work. From the two competing teams to the thousands of fans who bathe the SCG in pink, it demonstrates the positive difference sport can make to society," he said.

Sutherland also revealed that due to the efforts of the foundation, over $5 billion have been raised so far, which has helped place 110 nurses in different parts of Australia.

However, that hasn’t been enough, as a research done by the organization itself revealed that there would be a shortfall of 85 nurses in 2016, a stat that is expected to grow by 28 percent in 2020.