Sometimes things in life work out all at once. Fourteen months after announcing he had been diagnosed with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia, pro hockey player Brian Boyle had three amazing things happen.
First, Boyle’s now three-year-old son was able to start going to school four days a week after a close call with a particularly aggressive cancer called Ewing sarcoma; second, two weeks ago, Boyle found out he was officially in remission himself; and finally, Boyle scored his very first hat trick during the a game with the Pittsburgh Penguins that happened to be called “Hockey Fights Cancer Night.”
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New Jersey Devil Brian Boyle was diagnosed with leukemia last year. Tonight, he got his first career hat trick … on Hockey Fights Cancer night.pic.twitter.com/dsGDpX9Sk3ESPN (@espn) November 6, 2018
Chronic Myeloid Leukemia is a slow-growing cancer that originates in the myeloids, explains Dr. Nina Shah of the UCSF Medical Center. Boyle was diagnosed with the disease in September of 2017, and missed the first 10 games of the season before returning on November 1st, 2017 to play. Almost exactly one year later, on the evening he scored three goals in one game, he proudly told NHL.com that he was in “full molecular remission.”
During a televised interview with MSG Networks following the game on Monday, Boyle described that being a leukemia survivor is an identity that nobody asks for. “It’s a club, I’ve said before, you don’t want to be in. I’ve been on that sideI know what it feels like to hear the words ‘you have cancer’ from a doctor.”
Boyle is proud to have made a comeback and be able to contribute to the league’s efforts to raise awareness and money for all types of cancer, with the hat trick being the icing on the cake. And, he continues, he hopes that others struggling with cancer will know that they don’t have to do it by themselves. “What we’re able to do… recognizing the people that are fighting, sometimes they feel alone.”
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