ABBY Ward's family will forever be tied to the Mark Hughes Foundation.
The year nine St Joseph's College Lochinvar student was 11 years old when her mum Alison passed away aged 44 from a stage four brain tumour on August 19, 2019.
Her symptoms had started three years earlier and included headaches and numbness.
"I was just very young and didn't really understand it," Abby said. "[The foundation] provided us with a [brain cancer care] nurse Sandy, we became very close to her and she was very nice towards our family. It was just a great help."
Abby and fellow students Tess Peel and Max Siddens invited Hughes to visit and speak to the school on Tuesday.
Tess lost her grandfather and Max lost his father to brain cancer.
They presented Hughes with $11,000 raised through selling 440 beanies, to go towards research for a cure.
Students are still tallying money raised from a pizza lunch order day and bake sale, which will also be donated to the foundation.
"I just really wanted to try and help back that community and get involved in it so I could just have a part in it," Abby said.
"[I want to be involved] so that no more families have to go through that, because it's killing people and it's ruining families and it's not good."
Year 11 student Tess said everyone could play a role to raise awareness and fund research.
"I want to be able to help families that are going through brain cancer and make sure they don't go through all the hurt and sadness that we went through," she said.
Tess said it had appeared her grandfather Michael Watson had been having a series of strokes when he received his devastating diagnosis of a tumour.
He passed away a few months later, at the start of this year.
"He was very funny, he knew how to make me laugh with what he used to say and he was very good with what he did... he loved to help other people," she said.
Hughes said he was inspired by the students' stories and by the school, which he said had contributed an "enormous effort" to the cause.
"Young Abby showed me a picture of me and her and her mum when I was at their primary school a few years ago," Hughes said.
"It hits home that she was with her mum then and I'm here now and she's not. It definitely reminds me of why we all work so hard to find a cure for brain cancer, because families just get ripped apart and there's examples of some beautiful young families here that we unfortunately couldn't help, couldn't stop the outcome.
"We have our brain cancer care nurses that have helped them in tough times and I'm proud of that and the MHF nurses do an amazing job... but at the end of the day we're here to stop the suffering and find cures."
