The Hockey Fights Blood Cancer tournament, held on Sunday, Feb. 23, raised a whopping $8,500 with donations from on and off the ice. That amount was then matched by another popular local hockey fundraiser, The Tim Annesley Hockey Tournament, for a total of $17,000 in support of cutting-edge stem cell therapy and research at the Maisonneuve Rosemont Hospital in Montreal. When volunteer firefighter Eric Mackeage and his wife Donna were hit with a double cancer diagnosis within a one-month span, the people around them sprang into action wanting to help in some way. The most logical thing was to offer financial assistance while the family was off work and in treatment, but Mackeage declined. “We’re going to be alright,” he insisted. And today they are. Even so, there was a desire to help, so it was decided to hold a hockey tournament to give back to the hospital where Mackeage had received a new lifesaving treatment. “When I was at the CHUS, they gave me my date,” Mackeage explained. “I wasn’t supposed to be here now.”
Thanks to a stem cell donation from his son Ryan and treatment at the Maisonneuve Rosemont Hospital, Mackeage is doing well. See full story in the Wednesday, March 4 edition of The Record.
Blood cancer fundraiser nets $17,000
By Matthew McCully
