Rinkmates Roy, Jacobson winning the battle
SASKATOON — Dane Roy’s weight had plummeted more than 30 pounds and he couldn’t catch his breath, which caused all kinds of problems as he laboured to sweep stones at the 2012 Saskatchewan Tankard.
The veteran curler knew he was sick. He didn’t know why.
A couple of months later, doctors diagnosed Roy with acute myeloid leukemia — “It’s pretty tough sweeping when you have leukemia,” Roy says now, in understated fashion — and the prognosis at that point was grim.
But after intensive chemotherapy that included four months in hospital, much of that in isolation, with fears about whether he was going to survive, Roy — now 30 — is in full remission.
Half his curling team is in remission, in fact — 36-year-old skip Jason Jacobson, like Roy, is a cancer survivor after his own scare in 2010.
Jacobson’s Saskatoonbased foursome is playing at this week’s Point Optical Curling Classic, a World Curling Tour stop in Saskatoon with a $50,000 purse and a glittering array of top talent from around the world.
It’s a massive understatement to say Roy and Jacobson — whose team opened the tourney Friday with a 5-4 loss to U.S. champion Brady Clark — appreciates what’s happening around them.
“It’s been just over a year since I got out of the hospital, and there’s not a year that can live up to this year I’ve had,” says Roy, who lives in Moose Jaw. “The love of living definitely gets put to the forefront. I’ve done a lot of travelling, had a lot of good times.
“I appreciate life way more. And getting the opportunity to play at some of these events like the one this weekend in Saskatoon ... you get to play against the best curlers in the world; you look around the curling rink, and realize where you are and where you were. It makes you smile inside.”
Jacobson, a Saskatoon police officer, was Darrell McKee’s fifth for Saskatchewan at the 2010 Brier. Shortly after, Jacobgson was diagnosed with follicular lymphoma, a slow-moving blood cancer.
He says the diagnosis was “devastating” at the time, but he’s in remission after six months of chemotherapy and two years of treatment.
He was off work for 11 months, but he continued to play on the World Curling Tour with skip Joel Jordison — the arrangement having Jacobson in the house, and Jordison sweeping.
“I had no energy at all,” Jacobson says now. “If I swept a few rocks, I’d get dizzy, I’d sweat a lot, I couldn’t catch my breath. And shooting, it felt like I was throwing the rock properly, but I certainly wasn’t. We had a little bit of success, which was amazing, considering the situation.
“It was something that kept me going at the time and got my mind off what was going on with my health. We were gone lots of weekends, and my team was really supportive. It gave me something to do; otherwise, you sit at home and Google what’s wrong with you.
“I struggled (to curl), but it was something I needed to do.”
Jacobson and Roy didn’t know each other very well a few years ago, but their first serious contact was meaningful. Jacobson was one of the first people to email Roy after his 2012 diagnosis; he told Roy of his own experience, and offered advice and encouragement.
Last December, Roy felt much better, and Jacobson added him to the team. They’re into their second season together, but their shared ordeal is never far away.
The entire squad, which also includes third Clint Dieno and lead Matt Froehlich, is wearing Canadian Blood Services “One Match” patches on their jackets, alongside their regular paying sponsors.
It’s an effort on their part to raise awareness of One Match, a stem cell and marrow network that finds and matches donors with patients needing stem-cell transplants.
Both men recognize they may need that service if they ever get out of remission, and they want others to be able to access what’s needed more easily.
The patch has a prominent place on their jackets; it’s there for fans and fellow curlers to see and to ask about.
Matches are difficult to come by. There’s a big need, they say, for young male donors in their 20s and early 30s. And the more samples in the bank, the greater the odds increase of finding a match.
“Everybody’s scared of what they have to do for it,” Jacobson says, “but they just get a mouth swab, put it in the bank, and sometime in the future, if you’re selected as a match for somebody, they just have to give some blood. You can save somebody’s life pretty easily.”
Jacobson, who knows the potential urgency firsthand, is sending the word out to co-workers, friends and fellow curlers. And Roy isn’t shy about sharing his experiences.
In the meantime, both men say they feel completely healthy. Their weight is where it should be, their strength is back and they’re curling just like they did before cancer showed its ugly face.
“I’m as good as I can ask for,” Roy said. “I have no complaints.”