Celebrating the survivors
Pink in the Rink event tonight always an emotional time for this year’s co-chairwoman Julia Tanner
Julia Tanner hasn’t missed a Pink in the Rink game since they began in 2010 but in 2014 they took on a whole new meaning for her.
Tanner has been a Petes fan since she started attending games with her father Bill Phillips while attending St. Peter Secondary School in the mid 1990s.
“I grew up loving hockey, I was the son my dad never had, I think,” she said. “I enjoyed sports, watched sports and played sports.”
She became a die-hard with husband Vic as regulars on fan buses and later took over organizing the buses. She made a dare with friends in 2006 that if the Petes won the OHL championship she’d get a tattoo. The maroon and white logo is permanently etched on her ankle.
In 2004, she got even more involved with the Petes when she and Vic became landparents. Tanner, a nurse in labour and delivery at Peterborough Regional Health Centre at the time was helping Petes director Dr. Bob Neville deliver a child when he talked her into billeting players. Jeff MacDougald was the first players they billeted and Kurtis Foster and Julia Tanner, co-chairs of the 2017 Peterborough Pink in the Rink Campaign, share a laugh Nov. 9 at the Memorial Centre while promoting the eighth annual Petes Pink In The Rink fundraising campaign in support of Canadian Cancer Society Peterborough and District taking place at the Memorial Centre on Saturday at 7:05 p.m. during the Petes OHL game against the Oshawa Generals. See full Pink in the Rink coverage online at www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com and in Monday's print and e-edition editions of The Examiner. since then they’ve housed Mike Morrison, Myles McCauley, Matt McCartney, Greg Betzold and current players Matt Timms and Zach Gallant.
“They become a huge part of your family,” Tanner said. “It’s fun to have them around. The years we haven’t had players it’s so weird sitting in the stands after you’ve had players. You are so attached to them.
“We always have a bunch of players at the house, our door is always open to everybody, and the kids feel pretty comfortable at our house. They always congregate to watch the Leafs games in our basement. That’s fun, too, to get to know other players.”
She’s added the number of each player she’s billeted to her tattoo.
This year the Petes asked Tanner to be a co-chairwoman with assistant coach Kurtis Foster for the Petes 2017 Pink in the Rink fundraiser at 7:05 p.m. Saturday against the Oshawa Generals. It wasn’t just because of her close involvement with the club, it’s because she is also a cancer survivor.
Tanner had tickets to see an Elizabeth Manley skating show at the Memorial Centre on April 5, 2014 when she went earlier in the day for a Cat scan for an unrelated issue. Doctors found a tumour on her kidney.
“I didn’t know what to say or how to feel. I just kind of went numb,” Tanner said. “It was life changing. You just think ‘Oh, my God, what is next?’”
Tanner considers herself fortunate that when she had her kidney removed the cancer went with it, it had not spread, and she required no further treatment.
“That probably scared me more than having the actual surgery was the chemo and radiation. I was very, very lucky,” she said.
“I remember the next Pink in the Rink after that was pretty emotional. My family was here and it was very emotional to know you’d been through it and you’re lucky to be here to experience it for many more years.”
While Pink in the Rink honours those who lost their battle to cancer, it also celebrates the survivors.
“The whole curse of cancer so much of it is curable now because of all the research that is ongoing,” Tanner said. “It’s events like Pink in the Rink that help with that research. Maybe, one day, we’ll just get rid of it.”
The goal this year is $85,000 which would push the total in eight years to more than $540,000.
a.m., Hockey, PHA Tyke Showdown, Evinrude Centre, Kinsmen Civic Centre, Memorial Centre
a.m., Hockey, Under The Lock Tournament, Trent-Severn Waterway @ Lift Lock
p.m., OCAA Men’s Basketball, Algonquin Thunder vs. Fleming Knights, Peterborough Sport and Wellness Centre
p.m., OUA Women’s Volleyball, RMC Paladins vs. Trent Excalibur, Trent Athletics Centre
p.m., OHL Hockey, Pink in the Rink, Oshawa Generals vs. Peterborough Petes, Memorial Centre
p.m., OUA Men’s Volleyball, RMC Paladins vs. Trent Excalibur, Trent Athletics Centre
a.m., Hockey, PHA Tyke Showdown, Kinsmen Civic Centre, Memorial Centre
a.m., Hockey, Under The Lock Tournament, Trent-Severn Waterway @ Lift Lock
p.m., OCAA Men’s Basketball, La Cite Coyotes vs. Fleming Knights, Peterborough Sport and Wellness Centre
p.m., CPJHL Hockey, Glengarry Highlanders vs. Norwood Nemesis, Asphodel-Norwood Community Centre