{"id":367773,"date":"2026-04-07T11:59:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T11:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/367773\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T11:59:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T11:59:11","slug":"blues-unite-in-show-of-support-for-teammate-with-terminal-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/367773\/","title":{"rendered":"Blues unite in show of support for teammate with terminal cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Blues players will be sporting special hair styles in support of teammate Cameron Suafoa for this weekend\u2019s big game against the Hurricanes.<\/p>\n<p>The 27-year-old announced his retirement last week after revealing his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.1news.co.nz\/2026\/04\/03\/blues-star-retires-from-rugby-after-terminal-cancer-diagnosis\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">cancer has returned<\/a> and is now terminal.<\/p>\n<p>The other players have got buzz cuts or dyed their hair blonde in a show of unity for him.<\/p>\n<p>Suafoa stopped by training today, giving a lift to his teammates as they practised in wet conditions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s awesome to see him out today especially on a rainy day,&#8221; said loose forward Malachi Wrampling.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-greyDarkFaded\">Cameron Suafoa announced his retirement from the game last week after the return of an aggressive form of cancer.  (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s got a few appointments this week and just shows the love for his team he has, and the love we have for him as well. It&#8217;s awesome to see him here, it&#8217;s real morale-boosting.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Auckland-born Suafoa was diagnosed with sarcoma, an aggressive form of cancer which affects connective tissue in the back, in November 2023.<\/p>\n<p>He returned to rugby in May 2024 after he was declared cancer-free, playing six matches with the Blues in their campaign that year, but received a second cancer diagnosis in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>The Blues face the Canes in a top of the table clash on Saturday night in Wellington.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Blues players will be sporting special hair styles in support of teammate Cameron Suafoa for this weekend\u2019s big&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[33339,134,111,139,69,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-367773","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-blues","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}