Royce Simmons Visits Cowra During Big Walk

Local Rugby League legend Royce Simmons stopped in Cowra last Tuesday night as part of ‘Royce’s Big Walk’- his fundraiser he is embarking on to raise funds and awareness for dementia research.

Last Tuesday was day one out of 10 of his big walk, which started in his home town of Gooloogong, and will end in Penrith on Friday night, where the Penrith Panthers legend will walk into Penrith Stadium before kick-off of the Penrith Panthers v North Queensland Cowboys game.

He visited Cowra at the end of day one of his walk, which was 40km from Gooloogong, and one of the longest individual days of his walk.

He was joined by fellow rugby league greats Brad Fittler and fellow local legend Andrew Farrar on his Gooloogong to Cowra stretch, leaving Gooloogong at 7:30am and finally getting into Cowra around 4pm.

The three former players met up with around 150 Cowra Magpies local rugby league players at Sid Kallas Oval after they arrived in Cowra, where they signed autographs and spoke about the ‘Big Walk’, before heading to the Cowra Bowling Club for a fundraising dinner. Simmons said he was very happy with all of the support he’d received for his walk on the day.

“It was unreal, people had signs up along the way from Gooloogong to Cowra, one saying ‘298km to go’,” he said.

“We had a big crowd in Gooloogong on Monday night for the fundraising dinner there before I started the walk.”

“I pulled up well. I’ve just got a couple of blisters on my feet, but I’m looking forward to the rest of the walk. The dinner in Gooloogong raised around $20,000, while the dinner in Cowra raised more than $20,000 as well.

• Topics:
• Rugby League
• Fundraiser