Football star Tom Hawkins reveals how his mother’s sudden death from cancer almost a decade ago continues to hit him and his family hard.
- Hawkins opens up about losing his mother Jennie in 2015
- He says it was ‘heartbreaking’ for him and his family
- He wishes his children could meet his mother
Geelong superstar Tom Hawkins has opened up about how his mother’s shock death in 2015 still affects his family and how he wishes she could have met his children.
Hawkins, 35, has enjoyed plenty of success during his glittering 356-game career, but it hasn’t all been plain sailing for the three-time premiership player.
After setting Geelong’s record for most matches played in Saturday’s loss to GWS, he admitted his toughest challenge to date has been coping with the devastating loss of his mother Jennie to cancer in April 2015.
“When you suddenly lose a parent to illness, it’s tragic and heartbreaking for me and my family,” Hawkins told the Herald Sun.
Tom Hawkins (pictured with his family) has explained that the loss of his mother remains the biggest challenge he has faced during his long and successful career.
The Geelong star’s mother Jennie (pictured together) lost her battle with cancer in April 2015.
“I’m lucky to have a lot of family here and teammates that I’ve played with for a long time – I saw Stevie (Steve Johnson) right before.
“I think if you want to play the game for a long time, you have to be resilient, but you also need a lot of support.
“It has been the most important period and challenge of my footballing career, but there have been other challenges – form and at the beginning there are fitness challenges at the end there are sometimes body challenges.
“I would love to look back on my mother’s passing, but I have learned wonderful things through these challenges of fitness, injury and adversity.”
Hawkins was particularly close to his mother and paid special tribute to her after she scored a goal against North Melbourne in 2015 by looking up to the sky and kissing her black armband.
Players mobbed Hawkins after his goal and heartwarming tribute, knowing what he had been through.
“Your mom and dad have a huge impact and especially in my family, in the Le Deux and Hawkins family, we are very close and really, really close and we lean on each other a lot and we socialize a lot” , did he declare. .
“I love my family, and now I have my own family, so it’s sad for a lot of reasons.
Hawkins says he wishes his mother had the chance to meet his children
The football star says his mother is never far from him and his family. He keeps a photo of the two of them in his locker in Geelong (pictured)
“I would love for my children to be able to meet my mother, but that wasn’t the case.”
“We still think about her, don’t we?” Grandma Jen, he said to one of his daughters.
His Geelong teammate Steve Johnson also commented on how difficult this period has been for his great mate.
“It was quite a difficult time for him because players are obviously close to their families, but he had a very special relationship with his mother, they were very, very close, that was obvious to everyone who knew him,” Johnson said.
