This year was meant to be the best of Jackson Hastings’ life after becoming a father in April when his daughter Scottie was born. Three months later his mum passed away, and he has been navigating a range of emotions while coming to terms with life without her.
Ahead of his return to the UK after signing for St Helens, Hastings says he is determined to honour his mum throughout the rest of his rugby league career and beyond. “She was only alive for three months of Scottie’s life but it breaks your heart how much she loved her,” he said. “My whole footy journey is obviously about honouring my mum now but so is the rest of my life, just making sure her legacy lives on.”
Hastings admitted he has struggled with anger since her death and is working to control it. “It’s hard to put into words. I think until you go through it you don’t really know how to deal with it, no one’s got the right answers,” he said. “Controlling my anger is the one thing that I need to sort of work on because it’s no one else’s fault and I just want to be the best role model I can for other people going through a similar situation.”
A former Super League Man of Steel in 2019 with Salford, Hastings returned to the NRL in 2022 after a two-year spell with Wigan. He reflected on how his mum was his biggest supporter and the gratitude he feels for the moments they shared—moments his younger sisters did not get to have with her. “I cherish the moments that we did get to have with her and how much she not only loved me but the whole family, and then my baby was everything to her,” he said.
Hastings described his final memory of his mum—FaceTiming her about four days before she died—when she appeared a “shell of herself” compared with the fit, happy person he knew. “It’s sad because the last memory I have of her is that, which breaks your heart,” he said. “But it also fuels me to become better. I wouldn’t have asked for anyone else to be my mum so if my kids look at me in the same vein as I looked at my mum then I know she’ll be looking down on me proud.”