Best mate gets thrown around a lot.

But what does it actually mean?

To me, it means a few things.

One of my best mates, Jake Borlace from Broken Hill, works on the mines as an electrician and plays for the mighty North Bulldogs.

The 28-year-old is one of three siblings and has quite fair skin.

Whilst doing his day-to-day work in the Silver City he spotted a mole on the back of his left calf to which he decided to book in to see a dermatologist.

Thankfully he did this before it was too late.

Two days after getting it checked, he received a phone call to come back into the surgery.

He received the news that no one wants to hear - "you’ve got melanoma".

Emotions were so raw and thoughts were racing through his head, but one thing I know about this bloke is that he has an amazing attitude and a super supportive fiancée and family.

Many months have passed and a lot of water has gone under the bridge.

Countless kilometres down to Adelaide at late hours of the night just to get here in time for his appointments the next morning.

In this period of time, our group of friends threw out countless text messages and phone calls about brainstorming ideas on what we can do for our mate Jake.



Taylor and Jake with mates in their younger days

We thought, what better way to help him than a lunch to raise some funds as well as some much-needed awareness?

Things happened quickly and suddenly we were booking out The Magarey Room at one of the most iconic stadiums in the world, Adelaide Oval.

This Friday will be a day to raise awareness for melanoma and also help Jake get through his next hurdle in life, with the support of the Melanoma Institute of Australia.

We have Western Bulldogs legend Bob Murphy kindly giving up his time to be the guest speaker, with Triple M’s Chris Dittmar as MC.

There will be some amazing auction items including The Ultimate Captains’ Collection featuring all 18 AFL club jumpers signed by their respective leaders.

But back to my original question: what does best mates mean?

To me, it’s about showing care, love, passion and drive to do absolutely anything for each other under any circumstances.

That’s what Jake does for me, and that’s what I want to do for Jake.

This is what this lunch is all about.

If you want to bid on some of the auction items, click here or message ‘JAKE’ and your name to 0458 678 678 to register and start bidding.

If nothing catches your eye and you feel the urge to donate then head to this link: http://gofundme.com/jakob-arlen-borlace-trust. Any contribution would be greatly appreciated.

