By way of background, Noel was playing for Merewether Carlton Rugby Club against Maitland at Lorn Park on the 6 June 1987. In a collapsed maul Noel ended up a C4-5 Quadriplegic and spent 6 months in Royal North Shore and 6 months in Rankin Park Hospital. Noel has for the last 35 years been confined to a wheelchair which means that he spends most of his time in his house with the occasional outing in his wheelchair.

His dream is to be able to explore Newcastle once again in his own vehicle. We are raising money to purchase a Kia Carnival to be converted for wheelchair access.

Noel lives by himself and is home cared. This vehicle will make an enormous difference to Noel’s quality of life.

Noel remains closely connected to the Club and his old mates from playing days and is a regular at our home games when the weather is favourable.

Our Foundation, as part of the Club’s Welfare and Wellbeing Program, is proposing to raise $60,000 to provide a Kia Carnival vehicle for Noel which will be converted to accommodate his wheelchair by NDIS funding. The campaign is therefore being promoted as “Cheeky’s Carnival”.

This campaign is the brainchild of Noel’s old mate Leon Davis (no relation to John Davis!) and the Club is delighted to adopt the idea and take a leading role through the Foundation. 

Leon has been able to gain the assistance of renowned local artist James Drinkwater who has donated one of his large major painting valued at approximately $20,000 to $25,000 to be the centrepiece of a live auction to be concluded at a sit down dinner for about 200 people at the Cruising Yacht Club on Saturday 5th November . We expect the dinner will be attended by a broad mix of Club supporters, other rugby and sporting clubs and people attracted to the outstanding art and other auction prizes.