Ex-NHLers teaming up for cancer research
Team will join other former NHLers in ice battle bid to fund local cancer cause
Former NHL players Todd Warriner, Adam Graves, Marty McSorley, John Ogrodnick, Dennis Maruk, Marty Turco and the Detroit Red Wing Alumni team will be part of a hockey tournament to raise $100,000 for local cancer research.
The March 28 and 29 Play for a Cure Pro-Am tournament will include eight teams trying to raise the most money to get the top pick of former NHLers, including former Windsor Spitfires Warriner and Graves. Individuals who raise the most money will form a team to play against former Detroit Red Wings in the tournament-ending game.
“You miss 100 per cent of the shots you don’t take,” organizer and cancer survivor Jeff Casey said Monday as he teared up quoting Wayne Gretzky. “This is our shot at finding a cure for cancer.” Ten years ago, Casey was diagnosed with follicular non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma the day after his daughter was born. After the news conference at Windsor Regional Cancer Centre on Monday, he said he wants to give back. The goal is to raise $100,000 for cancer research, which will go to the new Cancer Research Collaboration Fund for research being done in Windsor. “I really want to have an impact and have fewer cancer cases and more cancer survivors,” he said. Casey became known as super radioactive man and sold T-shirts as a fundraiser for Windsor Regional Cancer Centre after he stopped all traffic at the Windsor-Detroit tunnel for about 40 minutes. He had received a radioactive test during his treatment and when he attempted to cross the border every gate went down and guards started moving toward him with Geiger counters.
Now he’s planning a much larger fundraiser with three events. It starts with a player-only draft March 28 at Caesars Windsor where the teams that raised the most money will get the best draft picks. Organizers are in discussion with two more former NHL players, Casey said.
The tournament is March 29 at the Atlas Tube Centre in Lakeshore. The top individual players who raise the most money will form a team that will play the Red Wing Alumni that night to end the tournament.
Because of research, sixty per cent of people diagnosed with cancer survive five years or longer, said Dora Cavello-Medved, a University of Windsor biology professor who is in the Windsor Cancer Research Group that started in 2012. “Sixty per cent is not enough,” she said Monday. Cavello-Medved said local cancer research means Windsor-Essex patients have better access to the latest treatments and equipment, and research attracts more doctors here.
Windsor Regional Hospital CEO David Musyj said medical research fits in with plans for the new Windsor-Essex hospital system and is a great way for Windsor to diversify its economy.
To volunteer, donate or learn more about the tournament visit playforacure.ca.