Hockey Hall of Famer and Winnipeg Jets legend Dale Hawerchuk is battling a resurgence of his cancer, his son Eric revealed Sunday on Twitter.
The Toronto native had gone through his “final round” of chemotherapy in April. The 57-year-old took a leave of absence from his job as head coach of the OHL’s Barrie Colts last September and announced shortly after that he had been diagnosed with stomach cancer. In early January, he had a successful gastrectomy.
Hawerchuk told Writers Bloc he was “doing well” at the beginning of May.
“It’s been a long road since I was diagnosed in August last year, but it was nice to be able to complete Plan A from my doctor and my surgeon. So I did chemo, then surgery, then chemo and I go for some scans at the end of the month here and we’ll see where it’s at,” said Hawerchuk.
“But I’ve been feelin’ really good. I mean, I’ve gone from a point where in the fall I needed a feed tube to survive. I couldn’t eat any food, the cancer had gotten too big in my stomach and at the juncture of my stomach and oesophagus, so the feed tube saved my life for probably two and a half months there and then somehow — I never thought I would — but I got an appetite back and I’m eating again, so those are all good signs.”
Hawerchuk spent nine of his 16 NHL seasons with the original Winnipeg Jets. The dynamic pivot scored 518 goals and 1,409 points in 1,188 games over the course of his career, recording the first 50-goal campaign by a Jet in 1984-85 (he finished with a career-high 53). He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2001.
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