‘Great news’ for player battling cancer
Former OHLer gets job offers, financial help
Milan Doczy moved to Canada from the Czech Republic as a teenager to pursue a career in hockey, and not only did he fall in love with Canada, but he fought to stay. And it was in Canada where he began his fight against cancer.
When he was diagnosed last year, while studying business and playing varsity hockey at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont., he was working hard toward a new career goal: Becoming an investment banker in downtown Toronto. He was on a student visa, and he was also facing a bill of more than $50,000 for the cost of his treatment.
This week, then, was a very good week.
Following the publication of several media reports — including a long profile in National Post on Monday — Doczy received three doses of good news.
A donor requesting anonymity has offered to cover the full cost of the treatment. Two big Canadian banks have reached out to discuss the possibility of hiring Doczy for a summer internship. He had one such interview scheduled for Friday in Toronto.
And, earlier in the week, perhaps the most important and promising news: Biopsies on a handful of lymph nodes removed late last month returned no signs of cancer.
“Great news,” Doczy said, walking to his interview on Friday.
“I don’t even know what to say,” said Tracy Walker, who billeted Doczy when he moved to Canada eight years ago. “It’s been such a whirlwind.”
Walker, along with her husband, Sean, were first-time billets when Doczy landed at their door as a 17-year-old defenceman fresh off the plane. He had signed to play for the Owen Sound Attack, an Ontario Hockey League franchise based a few hours north of Toronto.
He could not speak English. They could not speak Czech.
Still, they grew close. The quiet teenager — a gentle giant at 6-foot-5 — began learning English. He would watch American Idol with Tracy, a show that made Sean “run out of the room screaming.”
His NHL draft year came and went without a call. Doczy returned to the Czech Republic to play professional hockey, but decided he wanted to return to Canada. He wanted to go to university and was going to use the money from his OHL education package.
The problem was, nobody at the OHL could remember a European player actually using the education package. Doczy was stonewalled for a year. Finally, after the Toronto Star published his story, the OHL provided the funds.
He chose Brock in part because of its proximity to the Walkers. And then, last spring, he noticed an unusual mole on the outside of his right foot. It turned out to be melanoma, a condition that would ultimately lead to the prescription of interferon treatment.
It would be expensive: Estimated to cost $9,100 for the first month, and $42,000 for the next 11 months. Doczy’s parents were not in the position to offer much help, financially.