The BrothersIVBrothers charity initiative has already raised almost $40,000 of an estimated $60,000 with funds earmarked for the Western Care Lodge and Orange hospital’s clinical trial program.

The impressive fundraising tally is expected to receive a substantial boost as a result of a charity game –between Knox Old Boys’ Legends and Orange Emus’ Legends – to be played on Saturday, July 14, at Endeavour Oval.

Through its annual charity game and countless other fundraising initiatives BrothersIVBrothers has raised more than half a million dollars for Sydney’s Chris O’Brien Lifehouse since forming in 2012, but this year it lands in Orange in a bid to help improve the quality of life for cancer patients in the Central West.

“A little over 12 months ago my brothers and I hatched an idea to bring this to Orange with a focus on raising money in the Central West and we landed on two wonderful causes out here,” Jason Robertson said, he helped found the cause with his brothers Bryn and Scott not long before their youngest brother Lachlan died from esophageal cancer.

“Originally for the tour we were thinking Hong Kong, or America, but Orange is the best place we can think of to be in winter,” Bryn Robertson laughed, he and his brother were on hand at Western Care Lodge on Wednesday morning.

“After Lachie was diagnosed he was given 12 months to live so the idea was to try and live a lifetime and have some fun in that space of time, and the four of us playing a game together was part of that, because we’d never actually been on the field together before,” said Bryn Robertson.

“With another mate, Tim Cussell, who also passed away from (bowel) cancer, we wanted to try and raise some money for Chris O’Brien Lifehouse as well and really do some good. That first game, it was a very, very special day, we had 1000 people there and we raised more than $100,000.

“Lachie passed away just before the second game, the second year, so we did it in his honour and raised another $100,000 and now, several years on, we’re above $600,000 raised to try and play a role in defeating cancer.

“We’ve got two very good causes here and we’re hopeful of raising a lot of money for them.”

The Legends game coincides with Emus’ Blowes Clothing Cup clash with Cowra, and is followed by auctions and monster raffles at a post-game function that includes entertainment by Rennie and the Jets with frontman Rennie Adams, who is returning from his tour with Seal to play.

“We’re very passionate about what we’re doing and every dollar raised will make a tangible difference to treatment, care and research,” Jason Robertson said.

“We’ve had so many great people support the cause and we’d really encourage everyone to get involved because every single dollar we raise is going to these two causes and it’s going to be a wonderful night.

“With the raffles and the auctions and everything else we’d really love to raise upward of $60,000 but, really, the sky is the limit for something like this.”

The brothers were joined on Wednesday by Dr Rob Zielinski, head of cancer services at Central West Cancer Care Centre, and he explained the benefits this kind of fundraising will have on the region.

“A lot of the cancer research funding that gets raised in the community often goes to the city and we get a portion of it back, but this money raised is staying in Orange so it will have a huge impact on the community here,” Dr Zielinski said.

“It’s going to help with the lodge, which focuses on patients getting radiation and other treatments and it makes their lives so much more tolerable, while the other component of the money raised will go to the clinical trials unit here, that’s really the engine room of further advancing our treatments.

“We really are making inroads and clinical trials really help drive that. Everybody in Australia wants to have equal access to cancer treatment and clinical trials aren’t just a nice add-on.

“The trials unit we’ve started is four years down the track and we started from a very small beginning but now we’ve got 12 or 13 trials on and 100 or so patients on, we’re testing drugs that have never been tested on humans before in Orange which I think is amazing and we couldn’t do it without financial support.

“I can guarantee you the money raised from this event will help the Orange and Central West community in a huge way. Yes, the money’s coming to Orange but we treat patients from all over the Central West and the benefits will flow onto them.

“I’m so pleased the guys chose Orange, we can’t thank them enough.”

That’s a sentiment Orange Emus president Steve Fergus echoed, before adding his club couldn’t be prouder to be involved.

“It’s just an awesome initiative, our club just happens to be facilitating it. The benefits are going to flow through the central west and there’ll be countless people that benefit from what the guys are doing out here,” he said.

Around 200 tickets have already been sold for the after-game function but there is still some available, they can be purchased from http://m.moshtix.com.au/v2/event/orange-emu-legends-vs-knox-rugby-legends/102431.

Ticket sales close at 10am on Friday, July 13.