Mother's Day tragedy: Widow's heartbreaking call
Rachel Purcell received the awful phone call on Mother's Day telling her that her husband had collapsed, and died while playing football.
Sadly, Rachel and her partner Zane both knew there was a risk - he had an enlarged heart.
Zane leaves behind his wife, and his baby daughter.
The 29-year-old lived for rugby league, and died for it.
Man mountain, Zane Purcell, set up a try for the Lower Clarence Magpies on Sunday, but it was his last.
In Ballina, the scoreboard is frozen at the point Zane collapsed, shortly after hitting his head in a tackle.
"One minute he was setting up a try, then the next minute he collapsed to the ground," his cousin Brendan Randall said.
Zane was in love with two ladies in his life - his wife, Rachel, and their seven-month-old daughter, Bonnie.
His baby girl will not even know for a few years how profoundly her life changed.
Rachel was told her husband was dead on her first Mothers Day.
"It was hard," Ms Purcell told 7News. "He lived and breathed [footy]."
The 29-year-old father of Bonnie and seven-year-old Isaiah was pronounced dead at Ballina Hospital, after a paramedic from the Ballina Seagulls had tried to revive him.
"He had a big heart," cousin Brendan Randall said.
Zane had a big heart literally, too. The family expects an autopsy will confirm Zane died from his enlarged heart and irregular heartbeat.
Doctors have told them the injury was so catastrophic it could have happened in the middle of an emergency department surrounded by doctors, and he still could not have been saved.
There is no clear answer on whether the head knock triggered his heart condition.
"You go into the sport knowing that there might be something that's going to happen. Could be anything," his wife said.
Zane had just moved from Sydney's northern beaches to his hometown of Maclean to start a vegetation clearance business. It was a future for his young family, now snatched from him.