FRIDAY night's game against NRL outfit St George Illawarra Dragons was a particularly special occasion for one family.

Ebony Mackey travelled more than 17,000km from Australia to Warrington for the first time since the sad death of her father Greg.

The fans' favourite, who played five seasons for the Illawarra Steelers in the mid 1980s and became a folk hero at Warrington during two spells at the clubs in the 1990s, lost his battle with bowel cancer in September.

His 27-year-old daughter was presented with a cheque at half time for £19,927 after fans and former friends of the Aussie rallied around to support the Mackey family following news of his diagnosis spreading.

T-shirts created by fundraisers also collected another $1,000 in Australia.

She added: "It's been unbelievable and I can't express in words how thankful the whole family is.

"I wasn't sure about flying over at first but then about a month ago I knew I just had to do it and say thank you to everyone involved.

"Dad loved both his stints at the club and had a special place in his heart for Warrington and Wilderspool.

"It's been a really hard few months but knowing we have so much support has been great."

Tributes poured in for the popular player, who still holds the club record for most consecutive appearances, with many printed on the back of the order of service at the funeral.

Ebony, who left England 20 years ago but says some of her fondest memories were growing up in the town, visited the house she grew up in during her stay which is now new Wolves star Ashton Sims' home.

She added: "It's a small world as my dad coached Ashton, he played with my older brother and I went to school with his sister.

"It was nice to see snow while I was here too as one of my fondest memories living in Appleton was building a snowman with dad.

"The support for dad has been tremendous and means so much to me and the family.

"A lot of the funds that were initially raised went towards medical expenses and we didn't expect any more money to come through so I'm going to pass it to mum and let her think about what she wants to do.

"The amount raised is phenomenal and we're very touched."