Rugby: Blues management go the extra mile for Haiu

Kurtis Haiu. Photo / Getty Images

What started as an early morning jog to run off the effects of the night before has turned into a marathon effort to help stricken lock Kurtis Haiu by Blues coach Pat Lam and his support staff.

Lam is one of about 10 Blues management who will run October's Auckland Marathon in an effort to raise awareness and money for lock Kurtis Haiu, who is battling bone cancer.

The 26-year-old Haiu was told in April he has Ewing's sarcoma, a type of bone cancer. The cancer had spread from his rib to his soft tissue.

If that wasn't bad enough, he's also contending with an assault charge from an alleged property deal that turned sour - he appeared in Pukekohe District Court last week - and is also struggling financially. Compounding that is the fact a potential contract to play in Japan has evaporated.

Lam felt running the marathon would be one way they could help Haiu, who is now undergoing chemotherapy.

"The story behind Kurtis and what he means to this team is important to us," Lam says. "To see a young family devastated by that news is heartbreaking. Japan would have given him some financial security.

"We just want to do our bit to help out. We have decided that the management team would run the marathon and raise some awareness around the cancer and some money for Kurtis and his family."

Lam has been running on the morning of games with his management team since 2005, when he was Auckland coach.

Instead of saying management could not drink in the bar the night before a game, he brought in a rule that everyone would run together at 7.30am the following morning and it's been a tradition with his sides since.

"If you can't run, you walk and we all go together," he says. "Back in 2007, we did a half marathon. I wasn't very keen on that because the most I had run before was about 8km. We completed that. I have never run a marathon. It didn't interest me at all - but for a good cause, we're going to do that."

Physio Mark Plummer, who will also compete along with doctor Stephen Kara and Auckland manager Steve Devine, has devised a training schedule for everyone but Lam isn't proving a particularly good student. Since he brought his dogs into town from his house in Pukekohe, he's going against advice and running every day.

"If you see the medical staff or [scrum coach] Mike Casey running a bit gingerly [during a game], it's normally on the back of a long run," Lam says.

"We are building nicely to it but, if it wasn't for Kurtis, I wouldn't be doing it."