Jake McLeod and his family are thankful about their special Grey Cup weekend - all-expenses trip to Vancouver, tour of B.C. Place, visit with Canadian Football League legends and a great seat for Sunday's big game, courtesy of the league and Mark's Work Wearhouse.
Both organizations deserve praise for what they're doing for the 15-year-old Prince George boy and football player for the Duchess Park Condors, in the wake of his cancer diagnosis earlier this year. As the front-page story by Arthur Williams explains, Jake has a rare form of cancer that gives him large, fast-growing tumours on his legs. While these tumours don't spread to the rest of the body, they require constant treatment and can cause other serious health issues, not the least of which is Jake being able to keep his legs.
Yet the McLeod family shouldn't ignore what they will be providing to the football players they'll get to meet and to the organizations sponsoring their trip. While some might find the situation the McLeod family find themselves in to be sad and depressing, others are inspired by their efforts and eager to help in any way they can.
There is a long and solid connection between professional athletes and sick children in particular. Kids suffering from any illness, big or small, see their heroes in uniform, making great plays on the field and earning the roar of the crowd. Like all kids, they dream of that glory for themselves but sick children also see a body and mind working so well together that these special people, through hard work and practice, can accomplish incredible feats of athleticism. They'd just like to be healthy enough to compete.
When a professional athlete visits a pediatric ward, a children's hospital, or meets a young person like Jake McLeod, there is more going on than just the wide-eye admiration of a child who can't believe their good fortune that someone so powerful, so famous, so important would take the time to meet them, smile at them, ask them how they're doing.
The return for the athlete is perhaps even bigger. All but the most egotistical and self-centred professional athletes know how lucky they are to have the opportunity to showcase their talent and be compensated, in some cases ridiculous amounts, for playing a game. They also remember their passion as fans when they were kids themselves. Finally, they see themselves as ambassadors of their team and their sport.
Yet athletes are also deeply moved from their meetings with children fighting various illnesses. They can't help but be inspired by the courage and the tenacity of kids to have a good attitude when they are hurting so much and their future is so uncertain. For athletes to visit Canuck Place, a children's hospice centre, is an emotional rollercoaster, as they recognize these children are dying but still have the energy to smile and be excited to meet their sports hero. To help these kids forget about their pain and condition for a brief moment is an even more powerful and longer-lasting talent than being able to throw or catch a ball or shoot or stop a puck in ways few others can.
All professional athletes know of two certainties in their careers - pain and adversity. They will be injured at some point, they will be challenged to do more, be more, than they ever imagined. Winning at the top levels doesn't happen without being able to cope with pain, recover from injury and rise above adversity. In sick children, elite athletes see rich sources of motivation and those brief meetings stick to them as well. When they are tired, when they are hurting, when they feel they have nothing left to give, they remember those sick children and how those kids would love to trade places with them.
It inspires them in their darkest moments to try harder and play better.
Many successful players, past and present, in the Canadian Football League will shake hands with Jake McLeod and his family this weekend and say they are happy to meet them but they're not just being polite. When they hear how Jake finished this season and how passionately he talks about football, they will look at him and hope they can find in themselves the same drive and commitment late in the game or when the team needs a lift.
In sick children and in teenagers with cancer still devoted to playing football, the heroes find their heroes.
