Cancer campaigner Archie Goodburn to deliver match ball at Murrayfield

Archie Goodburn will deliver the match ball at Murrayfield for Scotland's Nations Championship match against Australia on Sunday, 15 November. The 25-year-old is a British champion, a European bronze medallist and a campaigner for brain cancer research.

Edinburgh-born Goodburn holds the Scottish 50m breaststroke record and has taken his campaign to bolster treatment and research to Prime Minister Andy Burnham and Scotland's First Minister, John Swinney in recent weeks. He is returning to the public eye ahead of the high-profile fixture in his home city.

"This means the absolute world to me," he said. "The most people I have ever performed in front of before was an audience of 10,000 on the castle esplanade for the Edinburgh Military Tattoo. "I was 12 and I sang a solo - What a Wonderful World! So this is an incredible opportunity to deliver the match ball in front of 60,000-plus people."

Goodburn played blindside flanker at Stewart's-Melville College before concentrating on swimming. He was diagnosed with a rare brain tumour, known as an oligodendroglioma, in 2024 and has since returned to competitive swimming following surgery.

Supporters at Murrayfield will have the chance to donate to two charities leading the fight to help those with brain cancer - Brain Tumour Research and the Astro Brain Tumour Fund. "This cause is so important to my heart," Goodburn added. "Brain cancer is the biggest cancer killer of those aged under-40 in the UK and, for some 25 years, it has received less than 2% of the national cancer budget. "Things are beginning to move and this kind of initiative can make a difference."

Goodburn will serve as guest of honour at Murrayfield in his home city when the Wallabies visit on Sunday, 15 November.