Knights’ high drama: ‘They started going down. It was like tenpins’

Hughes and a group of 28 trekkers – including former teammates Paul Harragon, Matthew Johns, Danny Buderus and Matt and Kurt Gidley as well as Manly great Steve Menzies – were climbing to Everest base camp, at 5364 metres above sea level, for his foundation, which raises money for brain cancer research.

The former Knights centre established the charity after being diagnosed with the disease in 2013.

In an astonishing interview from Kathmandu with Fairfax Media, Hughes said group members started dropping like "tenpins" when altitude sickness kicked in on the night after they reached their destination.

"Let's just say this: we're very grateful that an oxygen tank was there  – very grateful." Hughes said. "We could be talking about a whole different story if it wasn't. It was that serious.

"Each night, we would stay in a teahouse. We'd sit in a common area and go around the circle, talking about our highlights and lowlights. It was a good part of the trip, but it was often emotional. In the teahouse this particular night, the fun went out of it. You could see the look in some of their eyes. They just started going down. It was like tenpins.

"All of a sudden, six blokes just went down. We were lucky we had a doctor on the trip with us [orthopaedic surgeon Steve Rimmer] who won it in one of the auctions. We had blokes on the oxygen tanks, they were vomiting, they were going wobbly with their speech. We achieved our goal then we had two hours to get back to the teahouse and around the table it just started happening. It was really, really scary."

The situation was so serious that three men were taken by helicopter from the mountain to hospital.

"But they're in good shape," assured Hughes, who wouldn't identify who fell ill out of respect for their families. "We're expecting them back from the hospital in a couple of hours."

Hughes and his Knights teammates formed a lifelong bond in 1997 when they won the ARL grand final 20 years ago in the dying minutes of the grand final against Manly. Now they have been reunited in their support of Hughes and his mission to bring awareness to the often forgotten disease of brain cancer.

Last year, they conquered the Kokoda Trail. The driving force for this trip was Harragon  – the captain from 1997  – who did the trek with his son, Daniel.

On the final night of the trip, Harragon and his son and a handful of others did an additional two-hour climb in the dark to watch the sun come up over Everest.

After the Knights won the competition for the first time in 1997, the last two players standing during celebrations were Harragon and Hughes. Eventually, "Chief" had enough. Hughes picked up the huge prop, threw him over his shoulder and carried him out of the pub onto Hunter Street and into the morning light.

Like most former forwards, Harragon has the knees of a pensioner.

"No-one had more courage on this trip than Paul Harragon," Hughes said. "As a leader, as a man, his knees were gone … Most wouldn't be doing it. He did it with his son."

At one stage, Hughes was walking along, surveying Everest, the mountains around it, and found himself alongside Menzies, who played in that same grand final.

"Beaver," Hughes said, "did you ever think when you were playing us in 1997 you would be walking up Mount Everest 20 years later with us?"

Then Hughes would notice locals walking along the track with all manner of objects on their back, including a refrigerator. As they walked towards base camp, though, the group struggled with their own body weight. The air thinned and the charity walk turned into something much tougher.

"As you get higher, slowly but surely this altitude starts creeping in," Hughes said. "It starts doing funny things to people. You start walking a hundred metres up hill and it's not as easy as it is at home. It takes your breath away.

“You'd be looking around at sights you would never see, looking at Everest, staring at these amazing mountains, and then you're just trying to put one foot ahead of the other."

Hughes has been a warrior when it comes to raising funds for brain cancer research since his diagnosis.

You can donate at: www.markhughesfoundation.com.au

"There are people out there now with brain cancer who are climbing higher mountains than Everest," he said. "They're doing it much tougher. This was a really tough experience — much tougher than any of us imagined. But there are a lot of people out there doing it tougher than us. We're out there because we can do it — and trying to raise money for those who can't."

The group is expected to arrive in Sydney late on Friday night. So texted Johns just before they left: "Himalayas 1, Newcastle 0."

You can donate at: www.markhughesfoundation.com.au