PHOTO COURTESY CALEB WYROSTOK
Medicine Hat product Caleb Wyrostok stands between his mom Charlene and grandpa Wally, two of the four people he's dedicated his cancer fundraiser for.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The incentive to score in the Western Hockey League is already high for every skater, with professional contracts and more potentially on the line. For Caleb Wyrostok, every point he gets this season has the potential to help save lives.
The 19-year-old Medicine Hat forward is raising money through donations and pledges for every goal and assist he has with the Swift Current Broncos, to do his part in changing the future of cancer and trying to raise awareness.
The fundraising effort isn’t just because he’s charitable, Wyrostok’s life has been personally touched by cancer for the Past four hears. His mom Charlene was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer in November 2018, only months after he left for Edmonton at the age of 15 to play hockey with the Northern Alberta Xtreme. Shortly after, his grandpa Wally was diagnosed with brain cancer and passed a year later. In 2021 his aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer and one of his longtime favourite minor hockey coaches with pancreatic cancer.
“I never really knew how many people were affected with it until all that kind of came at once,” Wyrostok said. “My grandpa, my best friend’s dad, my mom, my auntie, I didn’t really know until that point how common it was. Now, it is trying to create some awareness for it and doing fundraisers.”
He started his fundraiser in partnership with the Canadian Cancer Society titled, ‘Bronco Bucks Cancer,’ asking for either $20 pledges per goal scored and $15 per assist or whatever amount people could afford. His early goal when the effort started on Nov. 1 was $2,500. He’s since passed that mark and has updated his goal to $5,000 by Feb. 28, 2023.
“I haven’t put up any significant number of points in any of my WHL season, so I didn’t expect to score too much, so I set it low,” Wyrostok said. “I didn’t really expect how much support was going to be behind it.
“It shows there are a lot of people I’m not close with that have very close relatives, friends and family who are battling cancer, too.”
Entering play Friday, the winger has six goals and two assists in 11 games in his third WHL season.
His mom says she wasn’t surprised by the amount of support they’ve received, having seen how helpful people in the hockey community and the Medicine Hat community were while she was undergoing treatments.
She is on the remissions timeline and while not in full remission, is feeling healthier every day and continuing to work on her recovery while still watching Caleb and his brother Keiran play hockey. She says the importance of showing up is the biggest thing she’s learned while battling cancer.
“When things are hard you just keep showing up,” Charlene said. “If everybody could live by that little piece of life advice, it does help propel you through some of those tough things in life that come along. So just show up.”
On his donation page on the Canadian Cancer Society website, Caleb says he learned not to take things for granted anymore and has applied that to his everyday play in the WHL.
“My approach to games this year has been a lot different than the past two years. I used to put a lot of stress on myself and worry about a lot of things that are hockey related,” Wyrostok said. “I think this year, I’ve just been making things easy and I’m just happy to be out there.”
His fundraising pledge efforts indirectly pay homage to something his grandpa used to do after every one of his games.
“When I started playing hockey he showed up to the rink from then until he passed away and he was definitely me and my brother’s biggest supporter. I remember when I was playing minor hockey every time I’d score a goal, he’d give me $1, or anytime I got an assist he’d give me 50 cents. That was his way of showing how much watching us meant to him,” Wyrostok said.
“I know my brother and I definitely have not felt the same since and just because he hasn’t been there in person, we know that he’s watching all of us now and he’s watching those games in a better place.”
