The wife of Wildcats coach Trevor Gleeson - Dawn Gleeson - was in the midst of her second battle with breast cancer a year ago.

The Wildcats launched the inaugural pink-themed match in the wake of the diagnosis, and the players responded with a thumping 31-point NBL win over Illawarra.

The pink-themed match has now turned into an annual event, and the Wildcats will proudly don pink outfits against United to raise awareness and funds for Breast Cancer Care WA.

Dawn is now cancer free again, and Martin said the players had been touched by her battle, plus those of other women going through the same thing.

"We see Trev on a day-to-day basis as the head coach of a basketball team," Martin said.

"Last year we got to see him as a father and a husband who has a wife going through breast cancer for the second time.

"And for him to open up and be as raw and as human as he was last year about it, we were motivated to get him a win as a person, not just as our coach.

"And this year it's much the same. Sometimes you're reminded the game's bigger than the sport, and this will be one of them."

The Wildcats perfect start to the season was brought to an end on Thursday night when they suffered a 100-96 loss to the Bullets in Brisbane.

The two-day turnaround between games - plus the flight back to Perth - means Wildcats players will have little time to get over any knocks or niggles.

Martin said that wouldn't be a problem, given the significance of the pink game.

"Dawn is one of the toughest people I've ever met," Martin said.

"And seeing how Trev handled it when it was at its worst last year - to still rock up to work and do his job as well as he could - was something we all admired.

"And then for him to open up and show that human side where he's like, 'This is what's going on at home, this is what my wife is going through, this his how it impacts my two kids', we couldn't help but be motivated.

"That's going to be the same when we step out against Melbourne United."

Australian Associated Press