NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
U17AAA team on a tour Thursday evening through the Margery E. Yuill Cancer Centre. The SEAC Tigers are hosting their annual cancer fundraiser game on Nov. 10, with proceeds donated to the centre.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat U17AAA SEAC Tigers were able to see Thursday night just how important donations raised at their annual cancer awareness game are and where they can be utilized.
The South East Athletic Club toured the Margery E. Yuill Cancer Centre after hours, ahead of their cancer awareness game on Nov. 10, a Sunday afternoon game at the Kinplex against the Lethbridge Hurricanes.
They raised $6,000 last year and look to surpass the total this year, with around $4,000 already raised. This year marks the ninth season head coach Kevin Riehl has organized a cancer awareness game, and his drive for the special contest is trying to give back.
“I really truly believe that we are lucky to be playing a game, and back in my playing days I thought, ‘What can you give back to something like that,” Riehl said. “This community has been very strong for myself and my playing days, and that’s why I feel a need for something like this.”
The players toured the cancer centre, learning the many different aspects that encompass the fight against cancer. Dan Thomas, manager of the Margery E. Yuill Cancer Centre, led the Tigers through the wing at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital, answering questions along the way.
He says donations from local teams and organizations goes a long way to showing patients support beyond the financial means.
“The donations help out the patients’ journeys as we help them here locally, treating them closer to home,” Thomas said. “They appreciate as much support in their own community, and we want to provide that. Teams like this make that more accessible to them.”
SEAC goaltender Carson Jerome was familiar with what a cancer centre looks like, having undergone seven weeks of treatment for mouth cancer in Calgary over the summer.
He looks forward to the potential of starting in the awareness game and raising as much as they can for people like himself.
“It means a lot, definitely for a personal cause as well, but also, like, helping everyone else out,” Jerome said.
Captain Treyden Kleinknecht left the tour impressed, learning how many people they treat, and he was proud to see a facility like that in Medicine Hat.
“It’s a lot bigger than I thought and I’m surprised how many patients actually end up coming here for different types of cancers instead of going to Calgary or Edmonton,” Kleinknecht said. “It’s good to see people can come here to get treatment.”
Thomas told the group they will treat 300 new patients each year, with an average of 5,000 total visits to the centre in a calendar year. Riehl hopes his team learns what it means to have a centre like this in the city.
“We’re pretty advantaged here, we have an opportunity to play a game and and we don’t really think about the things that are behind the scenes,” Riehl said. “When you get to walk through something like this and see how many people come through a facility like this, how many need the treatment, how many workers are here, anything that we can do to raise a little bit of money to support that group, that’s what we were trying to do.”
The Tigers will have a silent auction at the game, as well as a raffle for a signed stick from the 2023-24 Medicine Hat Tigers, and a signed jersey from the U17AAA SEAC Tigers team. They will don special jerseys for the game with special SEAC cancer awareness attire on sale. Also for sale that day will be bagged popcorn, caramel popcorn and jerky, everything but the kitchen sink to raise as much money as possible for the centre.
“We hope to raise a lot of money for this facility,” Riehl said. “We’re going to try and blow our record out of the out of the water from last year.”
