About Us

The Chris Burger/Petro Jackson Players’ Fund pays homage to two young rugby players who died playing the game they loved.

In 1980, Western Province fullback Chris Burger broke his neck and died in a Currie Cup match in Bloemfontein. This led to the founding of the Chris Burger Fund by then WP captain Morné du Plessis and his teammates. 

Petro Jackson, a young player from Kylemore in Stellenbosch, died during a match in 1989, prompting the pre-unity body SARU (not to be confused with the current South African Rugby Union) to establish a similar fund in his honour.

In 1992, the two Funds were united to form the Chris Burger Petro Jackson Players’ Fund, as it is still known today in its 30th anniversary year.

The Fund fulfils two core objectives: to assist the unfortunate victims of catastrophic or serious rugby injuries; and to develop and implement initiatives that aim to educate, inform and create awareness around rugby injuries. The purpose of this goal is to make rugby safer and thereby reduce the number of injuries that occur.

The Fund provides assistance to its recipients in the form of wheelchairs and equipment, as well as other comforts that seek to improve the quality of their lives.

A cornerstone of the Chris Burger Petro Jackson Players' Fund is its 24-hour toll-free BokSmart SpineLine number, 0800 678 678, which provides access to an emergency response service for serious and/or catastrophic injuries through its partners ER24.

The Fund has also trained hundreds of club and secondary school medics through its Rugby Medic Club.

The Fund raises much-needed funds through two hugely successful annual events - a celebrity golf day, and a banquet attended by the entire Springbok rugby squad, who man the phones in a live telethon that raised over R1-million in 2009.

The 2010 Bell's Night of the Stars banquet will be held on Tuesday 17 August at Montecasino in Johannesburg.