Touch teams clash in memory of Brooklyn

COMMUNITY SUPPORT: The fifth annual Brooklyn Battle Touch Tournament is on at Springvale Park this Saturday. PHOTO/ FILE

A touch tournament honouring the memory of Wanganui boy Brooklyn Hati-Bennett is expected to attract a quality field again.

The Brooklyn Battle Touch Tournament started in 2011 in Palmerston North as a fundraiser for Brooklyn's family when he was at Starship Hospital in Auckland receiving treatment for cancer.

Brooklyn died in 2012, aged 11, and the tournament was shifted to Wanganui as a fundraiser for the BrooklynsLove Foundation set up by Brooklyn's parents Dominic and Ngareta Patea.

"After Brooklyn passed my wife and I decided to try to find reasons why something like that would happen," Mr Patea said.

"Maybe it was for us to help other families through what we went through. We could sit back and say that was hard but we decided that we would set up a foundation in Brooklyn's name."

The foundation runs the annual tournament on Wellington Anniversary weekend. It will be held at Springvale Park this Saturday.

Any team can enter and Mr Patea said some teams returned each year.

"We're lucky in the fact that we get so many quality teams." The event even attracts representative and age group teams.

Winning teams don't get medals or trophies but beads similar to what Brooklyn received while getting treatment at Starship.

"The main focus for all of those players is sharing that Kaupapa," Dominic said.

The foundation focuses on supporting whanau of child cancer patients and the touch event is used to raise awareness about the how community can help.

Teams wanting to enter can do so by visiting www.sportsground.co.nz/brooklynbattle or calling Ngareta Patea on 021 2424 005.