Doc Watson: Walking for a teammate
- Details
- Published on Thursday, 08 May 2014 15:48
- Written by Doc Watson
There's still time to get involved in one of Peoria's great spring traditions, this Saturday's 29th annual Race for the Cure, starting at the Metro Centre in Peoria. As of Wednesday, there were over 8,400 participants and 240 fund-raising teams registered on line.
One of those teams, my Crusens mens hockey team, will be making its eighth walk through the 5K course in North Peoria. We'll be the guys in the blue hockey jerseys, walking in honor of our late teammate, Doug Troxell.
We've all told Doug's story many times to friends and family and to a few media outlets, but we don't mind telling it again. Doug was a defenseman on our team, Peoria's oldest hockey team since its 1997 inception. He was one of the youngest guys on a team that then called itself The Frogs (acronym for Freakin' Really Old Guys) and was usually referred to by teammates as "Tadpole" or "Sonny Boy."
Loquacious and well liked, Doug blended in easily from group to group, from the Owens Center rink rats to his golf and poker buddies to his Peoria Rivermen co-workers and fans. Doug was the official American Hockey League statistics manager for the team for years. He whacked both a golf ball and hockey puck equally hard and high, sometimes without concern over direction. He was humorous and self-deprecating, didn't mind being the butt of the joke. His stories could sometimes be labelled "TMI," as in he'd reveal too much information, enough to elicit nervous laughter.
So, it was shocking when, in his early 30s still, Doug was diagnosed with stage 3-B breast cancer. He and his wife, Anne, had one young daughter at the time and Anne was expecting their second child; quite a tough turn of events for the young family.
Doug, with Anne as his caregiver while taking care of two young girls, fought the cancer agressively for the better part of five years. He worked for State Farm Insurance in Bloomington and it was flexible about him missing work or working from home, as the Monday chemotherapy treatments left him wiped out and couch-bound for a couple days afterward. He played hockey with us, despite growing numbness in his feet and hands and general weakness from chemo and radiation treatments, until his final year.
In December of 2010, friends discovered there might be an income gap for the family after he left his job and before he could begin collecting disability. A fundraiser at Crusens for his family and medical expenses attracted hundreds and raised thousands of dollars. In February 2011 I arranged for the hockey team to take him to see his favorite team, the St. Louis Blues, one last time. The Blues, with former Rivermen goalie Ben Bishop in nets, crushed the Ducks that night, but Doug's health was failing and his mind slowed by the cancer and pain-killing morphine. Cancer took his life a couple weeks later on March 1, 2011.
We'll have some new players walking with us Saturday that didn't know Doug, but they've heard his story (we still wear Doug's #2 sticker on our helmets in his honor) and his legacy. He had innocently discovered a lump on his chest that wasn't visible, but could be felt beneath the skin. He hoped it was nothing more than a cyst. He didn't realize that while it's still rare, men can get breast cancer. Over the next five years, Doug became a spokesperson for male breast cancer awareness.
Whatever form it takes, cancer will end up taking one in three of us. My mother died from it, while my youngest sister, Fran, was lucky enough to catch it in stage 1 and is a healthy survivor, living in ski country in Colorado. Susan G. Komen and her sister, Nancy Goodman Brinker, were Peoria natives; some of you probably knew them. Nancy started the Komen Foundation on behalf of her only sister, who died from breast cancer in 1980 at the age of 36. We all know people who've been victims of it.
For many years, this Peoria Race was for women only, with the men lining the three mile route offering support. Men were allowed to participate around the time of Doug's diagnosis, so don't be shy about joining in, guys. It's a feel-good event, highlighted by the survivor's walk ̶ Doug was the lone man to take part in this pre-event ceremony ̶ that starts around 7:20 a.m. The run/walk begins at 8 o'clock.
We appreciate those who ring the streets of North Peoria for this morning event and offer encouragement, especially the various bands that perform. It's too late for Doug, but not too late for you to join us for the 29th Komen Memorial Race for the Cure at the Metro Centre in Peoria Saturday morning. The hockey team will stop when there's a cure.
