Lafleur lends hand to CHUM cancer fundraiser
An optimistic Guy Lafleur made his first public appearance since October when he talked to journalists during a video conference Friday announcing the creation of the Guy Lafleur Fund. It will be part of the Centre hospitalier de l'université de Montréal (CHUM) foundation's effort to raise money for cancer research.
Lafleur has had a variety of health problems since September 2019, when a routine physical exam required to renew his helicopter pilot's licence revealed blocked arteries. He underwent quadruple-bypass surgery, which revealed the presence of lung cancer. One-third of his right lung was removed, but the cancer reappeared in October.
Lafleur offered some good news, when he said the cancer mass has shrunk by 30 per cent.
“When there is life, there is hope,” he said Friday. “I feel good. I take it one day at a time. I have treatments every three weeks. I am getting tired, I sleep a lot, but the oncologist told me this is normal.”
Lafleur said he has a treadmill at home and tries to get outside for a walk in the fresh air.
“With the (COVID-19) confinement, there is not much positive,” said Lafleur. “At our age, the pleasure is going to a restaurant with friends, but we are cut off from everything. For me, the confinement started in September 2019 when I had my quadruple-bypass surgery and when my upper lobe of the lung was removed. It's long, it's painful, but we'll get through it.”
The CHUM foundation has set up the Club des 10, which is a play on his Canadiens sweater number and the nine celebrity friends who will join him on Facebook. Fans will have access to the celebrities in exchange for a weekly donation over the next 10 weeks.
A video shown Friday featured Scotty Bowman, Yvan Cournoyer, Sidney Crosby, Jonathan Drouin, Wayne Gretzky, Alexis Lafrenière, cancer survivor Mario Lemieux, Marie-philip Poulin and Patrick Roy. They each told stories of adversity they had experienced, and sent a message of support to Lafleur. Martin Brodeur and Ray Bourque will also offer their help.
Lafleur said he was encouraged by advancements in cancer treatment.
My father died of cancer in 1992 and I look at the evolution of treatments from 1992 to today, it's day and night.
“My father died of cancer in 1992 and I look at the evolution of treatments from 1992 to today, it's day and night,” said Lafleur. “My oncologist told me: `You can't cure cancer, but you can treat it, and give you a good quality of life.' It is not cancer that you catch and die two weeks later. Science is improving day by day. It is really encouraging.
“If we can treat it and I have 1015 years to live, it's not a lot but I'm 69 years old and it will take me into my 80s, it's not so bad,” said Lafleur. “It's about always keeping hope and understanding the evolution of treatments.”