Canadian sports icon faces lymphoma treatment

In September, hockey fans in both Russia and Canada will honor the 40th anniversary of what was considered at the time to be the greatest and most important international hockey series ever, the so-called Summit Series of 1972 between Team Canada and the Soviet National Team. It was widely expected that the Canadians would take down Russia easily in the eight planned games, but very quickly the opposite occurred, and when the teams headed over to Russia for the second half of the series, Canada was down in the series and being booed on their own ice.

Far and away the most iconic figure to emerge from the Summit Series was a moderately known winger named Paul Henderson. To that time, Henderson had had a good career in the NHL and was deserving of his spot on the team but few expected a whole lot from him. Surely nobody expected Henderson to score the series clinching goal for Team Canada, a goal that would become known as the Goal of the Century in Canada and retain that title to this day.

As Henderson prepares for the celebrations in September, he will also be preparing for anti-cancer treatment, as Canada's hero has been diagnosed with the indolent lymphoma subtype lymphocytic lymphoma chronic leukemia, and has been informed that he will likely require six months of chemotherapy treatment soon.

Henderson, who currently raises money for cancer charities such as Cops for Cancer, has every intention of making it to the 40th celebrations.

"Cancer is cancer," he told the Globe and Mail. "I’ve got a great life if I can just stay alive."

Source: Globe and Mail