A wish come true
Cancer survivor Scott Delaney and friends set to take on on NHL alumni
He could have gone to Disneyworld or went on a cruise or taken a trip to see his favourite NHL team, the Toronto Maple Leafs. He would have undoubtedly had a great time and everyone who knew his story would have been overjoyed.
But when former AAA midget hockey player and teenaged cancer survivior Scott Delaney decided on a wish he would like to have fulfilled through the Childrens Wish Foundation, it was one that could happen close to home, one that could bring some attention to those who helped him regain his health.
So on Friday afternoon, when the 18-year-old from Stephenville Crossing and some of his friends take to the ice at the Corner Brook Civic Centre to a play team comprised mainly of former NHLers, he’ll be living a dream, but he’ll also throwing a little light on the realities faced by cancer patients and those that treat them.
“I really wanted to give back to the Janeway, for all the hard they work do, for everything they’ve done for me and for others, too,” said Delaney as he talked about the St. John’s childrens hospital where he spent months after being diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 2011.
“People don’t realize the amount of people who get sick. It’s overwhelming when you first go in and see what it’s really like, and not just the amount of people, it’s the kind of people who get sick … so many young people, people you wouldn’t expect to be there … younger than me, older than me, my age. It’s hard enough that you’re there, but to see all the others, it’s hard to get through your head.
“But then there are the other people there, the doctors and the nurses and all the others help you get through it.”
Delaney has been in remission for almost a year and he was able to play the 2014-15 season, his second with Western AAA Midget Kings, free of the burden of chemotherapy. And with that return to health, he began to re- ally think about his wish.
He had been made aware of the Childrens Wish Foundation shortly after he was diagnosed with cancer when he was 14, “But I didn’t want to do anything about it until I got better and when I did, I discussed it with my parents (Eva and Craig) to see if it was possible,” said Delaney.
His original idea was to have a couple of NHLers come to Corner Brook to skate with him, but his mother suggested it might be easier to get some older players to come.
Then the St. John’s IceCaps, who were preparing to hold their training camp in Corner Brook, became involved, and what might have been a skate involving a few was expanded into a full-fledged game.
The IceCaps, the new American Hockey League affiliate of the Montreal Canadiens, have a coaching staff that had two former NHL defencemen in St. John’s head coach Sylvain Lefebvre and assistant Donald Dufresne. Then there was IceCaps director of hockey operations and Corner Brook native Jason King, and Rob Ramage, Martin Lapointe and Vincent Riendeau, members of the Canadiens organization in Corner Brook for training camp.
All are former NHLers and will be part of the lineup that will take on Scott’s team, featuring Western Kings alumni in a game 3 p.m. Friday, a few hours before the IceCaps and Toronto Marlies square off in an AHL pre-season contest at the Corner Brook Civic Centre.
Former New York islanders and Pittsburgh Pengiuins rearguard Gord Dineen, along with other members of the Canadiens and Leafs organizations, will also be playing.
“To be honest, I don’t know a lot of them very well, but I’m sure my dad does,” said Delaney with a smile. “But it know it will be fun.” It’s not the only hockey that Delaney, a left-winger, is playing these days. While taking firstyear classes at Memorial University’s Grenfell campus (he’d like to become an engineer), he skates with a team in the local juvenile league, although he still yearns for the level of competition he enjoyed with the Kings.
A couple of tryouts with Maritime junior A teams haven’t worked out as he would have wanted, but he has no plans to give up on that dream either.