Mr McCloy's daughter Hayley Van de Stadt said the Saturday donation was driven by the Mark Hughes Foundation's $7.5 million five-year philanthropic commitment to the University of Newcastle, which will be used to support a dedicated brain cancer team to drive critical research, education and health care improvements on a national scale.

"It's a very inspirational cause and they've done amazing things both locally and nationally for brain cancer research," Mrs Van de Stadt said.

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"The $7.5 million they've donated to Newcastle University is just outstanding and we wanted to get on the back end of that.

"Seeing money going straight to the cause, you can't get any better than that.

"Donations obviously get caught up in bureaucracy and overheads and whatnot, so knowing the full amount you're contributing or donating is going to such an important cause and going straight to the source is just amazing."

Mrs Van de Stadt said the family had known and respected Hughes for a long time and were also friends with Hunter cancer researcher Dr Matt Dun and his wife Phoebe.

"You can ask anyone and brain cancer has affected them in some way, some a lot deeper than others," she said.

"Phoebe and Matt Dun are good family friends of ours, their little girl lost her fight with brain cancer [in 2019] and that was pretty tough, so that's probably something that's the closest to our hearts and doing whatever you can to fight such a terrible disease.

"You do what you can and if you've got the money to do so why wouldn't you give and support back to the community and those in need."

Mark Hughes said the donation "took us by total surprise".

"When I got the phone call it was surreal, I could not believe someone has enough faith in us, that's a big responsibility to ensure that we do a great job with that because that's an enormous, generous donation from a Newcastle family.

"It's just wonderful that a family that has worked extremely hard for a long time wanted to use what they have to help others.

"What a legacy from them for their foundation to be pouring this much into our project.

"All the MHF team were a little emotional yesterday.

"This will be used to help set up and facilitate our big plans we've got for Newcastle University."

Mrs Van de Stadt said the donation is the first made by the newly established McCloy Family Foundation, which will aim to give around $1 million a year to a number of different causes, charities and people spanning a number of fields including health.

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