#DaleStrong: Hawerchuk Finishes Chemotherapy
4 years ago
On Monday evening, a little over five months after @Winnipeg Jets 1.0 legend Dale Hawerchuk’s battle with stomach cancer was made public, his son Eric took to Twitter to announce that his father finished his final round of chemotherapy protocol.
Back in September of 2019, Dale took a leave of absence from his position as head coach of the OHL’s Barrie Colts and we found out shortly after it was to battle stomach cancer. In October it was revealed by Eric that he has successful gastrectomy and was recovering and beginning chemotherapy treatments. As anyone who has had to go through cancer, or even anyone that has had someone go through chemo can attest, the treatments are often a seemingly long and sometimes punishing grind that can put a body through hell in trying to get rid of the deadly disease. Dale shared just how much the treatments took a toll on him in November to NHL.com’s Tim Campbell…
“It’s like somebody told me, it’s like being bag-skated for a week solid,” the 56-year-old Hockey Hall of Famer said, comparing his cancer treatment to a drill where players skate for minutes on end, usually with no pucks and prodded by coaches to keep up a pace until leg muscles are spent and lungs burn.“You just suck it up and do it if you want to make it. If they told you you could make the NHL if you bag-skated for a full week for two months, you’d say, ‘OK, I’ll do that.’ Here, you’re trying to save your life, so it’s, ‘Yeah, I’ll do that.'”
In what has been an absolutely trying and stressful year thus far just four months in, we will all gladly take this wonderful chunk of fantastic news and continue to hope for the best for Ducky going forward and maybe one day a return back behind the bench coaching the game we all love.
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