For Simmons, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer\u2019s disease in 2021, this year\u2019s 350km journey carries even greater meaning.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got to know Johnny in the early \u201980s when I was playing for Penrith,\u201d Simmons told NRL.com.<\/p>\n
\u201cJohnny was working on the front door of the club and I got to know him and became very good mates with him over the years.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe welcomed everyone and would make you feel good.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Royce Simmons joins the panel to preview Panthers vs Tigers<\/p>\n
Farragher\u2019s journey with the Panthers began on the field when he came off the bench in a pre-season cup match against St George at Belmore Oval.<\/p>\n
A powerful young prop from Gilgandra, he made his first-grade debut in Round 4 against a Rabbitohs pack featuring Bob McCarthy and Paul Sait.<\/p>\n
In just his seventh first-grade game on May 28, 1978, the 21-year-old suffered a life-changing spinal injury after a\u00a0scrum collapsed during a game against Newtown at Henson Park.<\/p>\n
But while his playing career was tragically cut short, Farragher\u2019s connection to the Panthers was only just beginning.<\/p>\n
He returned to the club in an office role and became one of Penrith\u2019s most beloved figures, spending more than four decades welcoming players and staff through the front doors.<\/p>\n
Simmons spent his entire 11-year playing career with Penrith from 1980 to 1991, when Farragher became much more than a familiar face around the club.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWhile I was playing there and he was in his wheelchair, I never heard the man whinge or complain once in my life,\u201d Simmons said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a bloke I got to adore, a champion mate, and I spent a lot of time with him and learnt a lot of things off him.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was Farragher\u2019s resilience and selflessness that left the greatest impression on Simmons.<\/p>\n
\u201cI loved his company. I learnt so much from him about respect and his ability not to complain, and the way he spent time with other people making them feel better.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere he was going through a lot worse, but he was always thinking about other people.<\/p>\n
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I admired him that much for what he was all about. He certainly made me a better person<\/p>\n
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That admiration made it an easy decision for Royce to start this year\u2019s Big Walk in Gilgandra.<\/p>\n
\u201cOut of respect for Johnny, I thought we would start out in Gilgandra and walk over to Cowra,\u201d Simmons said.<\/p>\n
Simmons created Royce\u2019s Big Walk to raise vital funds and awareness for dementia research following his own diagnosis.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur foundation has paid for five or six research programs now,\u201d Simmons said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of brilliant young doctors out there trying to find the answer, so we need to help them out by raising some money and giving them the opportunity to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aside from the lure of another minor premiership, the final home game of the season will carry extra…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":588464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-588463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588463","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=588463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}