Cancer Resurgence Has Dale Hawerchuk Back in the Fight of His Life

Longtime Winnipeg Jets legend Dale Hawerchuk is back fighting for his life. On Sunday, Hawerchuk's son Eric, tweeted a message indicating the return of cancer within his father's body, just three months after the completion of his final round of chemotherapy in April. "My dad is back in his fight against cancer due to a resurgence of this terrible disease," Eric Hawerchuk tweeted. "We are praying for him and he will continue to fight hard #HawerchukStrong." This difficult news follows Hawerchuk's recent announcement of chemo completion back in mid-April for stomach cancer, which had taken a significant toll on the 57-year-old's well-being. He rang the Bell of Hope while exiting the hospital in Barrie, ON. on April 13, to which 31-year-old Eric also commented on the hopes that that occurrence would be the final stage of his father's journey. Dale Hawerchuk spoke in depth about his then-current situation on CBC's After Hours with Scott Oake in early May from his farm in King City, ON. Now back battling the same stomach cancer that he has endured since last August, the Hockey Hall of Fame member said that he first started showing signs of heavy acid reflux for the very first time in his life in August of 2019. This prompted the decision to undergo a scope – a decision that he claims may have saved his life.

“I went in and did the scope,” Hawerchuk recalled. “When I woke up the doctors at the end of the bed said, ‘Sorry, but I’ve got bad news. You got cancer.’ You just think you’re in a bad dream. You want to wake up but that was the reality. Within a few hours, I was meeting with the surgeon.”

The immediate shock of Hawerchuk’s diagnosis was felt throughout both the communities of Winnipeg – where Hawerchuk suited up for the Jets for nine seasons – and Barrie – his current home, as a ninth-year OHL head coach – as reports tending to the seriousness of the situation grew in nature, seemingly overnight. Hawerchuk first publicly cited “health issues” as his reason for stepping away from the Ontario Hockey League’s Barrie Colts at the beginning of the 2019-20 OHL season. Much speculation led to the family announcement that the 16-year NHL veteran had been diagnosed with stomach cancer. “The support I received from Winnipeg was large,” Hawerchuk said. “I have a lot of gratitude for that for sure; it really helped pull me through. Some people were relentless, you know, in my emails or texts or through friends. But just knowing that support was there… I love Winnipeg, but I love Manitoba too. I have heard from so many different people. It was the perfect place for me to play and I enjoyed it thoroughly.” Hawerchuk’s support system extended from his deep hockey connections all the way back to his family at home. His wife Crystal – whom he met back in Winnipeg – has served as his personal nurse, while his children Eric, Alexis and Ben provided support in “nearly every other thing”. Ben even returned to Ontario from his professional hockey team in Slovakia to be with his father during the process. “It’s a family battle, and their support was incredible,” Hawerchuk shared between tears. “There were some tough days. I cannot imagine going though this by yourself, it would be so difficult. They helped immensely. Not only my family, but even the support I got from the hockey world. It was incredible.”

For Hawerchuk, the cancer came on rather quickly, with hardly any indication. Now serving as somewhat of a spokesperson for the cause, he did provide a message of support/instruction for a certain demographic of the general population in his ‘After Hours’ appearance:

“The one thing you find out with cancer, and even talking to other people who have had cancer, is the symptoms don’t hit until it’s further along than you’d want,” Hawerchuk said. “If you can get it in stage one, you’re way ahead of the game and a lot of the times the symptoms don’t show up until stage three or four. I think just the way things are in the world now, whether it’s the food we’re eating, you should do these scopes earlier than when we used to recommend.”