If you take a look at Madison Bizal’s Instagram account, you’ll see a single post about the cancer she beat. The photo, published in November 2023, shows her with her parents as she rang the bell officially marking the end of her treatments.
Before this publication, very few people, other than her family and her former teammates on the Ohio State University Buckeyes, knew about what she had gone through. Discreet by nature, the defender of the Montreal team of the Professional Women’s Hockey League (LPHF) began to speak publicly about this ordeal, which stretched over three years, once everything was over.
“I didn’t want people to look at me differently because I was sick. I didn’t want them to think I couldn’t play hockey either,” she tells us in the stands of the Verdun Auditorium, Friday morning, after training.
But now that it’s over, I think I need to share my story to, maybe, inspire people who are going through something similar.
Madison Bizal
Bizal told his story to New York Times, these last weeks. The Minnesota native, eighth-round pick tour of the Montreal team during the September draft, agreed to tell the story to The Press.
This story begins in 2019, when Bizal discovers a bump in his neck, under his left ear. In her second season in NCAA Division 1, she took blood tests and tests, before it was decided, in November 2020, to remove the mass, which continued to grow. A biopsy allows doctors to see that the tissue is cancerous.
Of course, Bizal does research online. She has “a little fear” that it is cancer. But who wants to imagine the worst in such a situation? “It was in the back of my mind, but I didn’t think it could really be that,” she recalls.
When the doctor calls her to tell her the bad news, the hockey player bursts into tears. “It was a huge shock,” she says.
The next day, the defender gathered her Buckeyes teammates. “It was important for me to tell them immediately because they were my family. I was going through something really difficult. I wanted them to be informed about what was happening. At that moment we didn’t know what would happen next, if I were to come home [au Minnesota] and all that. »
Hockey
The official diagnosis: nodular Hodgkin lymphoma with lymphocytic predominance. There was no risk to his life, doctors told him. The young woman did not have chemotherapy, but intravenous drips. Every Tuesday, she went to the hospital for her treatments.
“Things lined up pretty well,” she continues. My treatments were on Tuesday. I went to school Monday, Wednesday and Friday. »
It was previously said that Bizal is discreet by nature. The then 20-year-old didn’t tell anyone other than her team and close friends about her diagnosis. Not even to his teachers. “I didn’t say anything except in situations where there was a conflict with the school. »
“It was a different medication. I hardly felt any effects from it. I was given lots of Benadryl and Tylenol so I wouldn’t have a reaction during my treatments. It was in those moments that I was tired. I was taking a nap on the way back from the hospital. »
For three years, Bizal divided his time between treatments, hockey and studies. She has not missed a single game of her team.
Not. One. Alone.
“It was very difficult to go through that. Mentally, it was a lot. But I had an amazing support system around me that helped me get through it. »
On a daily basis, she almost never talked about her health problems. The subject only came up when a teammate was going to take her to her treatment. “I kept them informed when I had good news,” she explains.
In July 2023, Madison Bizal underwent her very last treatment. She rang the bell. Finally, it was all over.
“It was a really special day. My parents were there. They had never come to my treatments before that because they were in Minnesota. It was special to do it with them. It was a great relief. »
The dream
Just a few weeks later, Bizal lived a dream. She was alone at home with her dog on September 18 to watch the first draft in LPHF history. The selection session had been open for more than three hours when the head coach of the Montreal team, Kori Cheverie, appeared on stage to name choice number 43: Madison Bizal.
“It was a dream come true to hear my name,” recalls the main interested party. “I was very happy that it was Montreal. I had never been to Montreal, but everyone told me good things about the city. »
PHOTO FRANK FRANKLIN II, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES
Madison Bizal (6) celebrates with Marie-Philip Poulin, Laura Stacey (7) and Kati Tabin (9).
Some seven months later, Bizal is part of the defensive brigade of a team which, with five games remaining in the season, is in a good position to participate in the first playoffs of the LPHF. And on April 20, she will play in front of a packed Bell Center.
Today, cancer is behind her, “in the rearview mirror,” she says.
I close this chapter, put it aside and look ahead to what is to come.
Madison Bizal
Of course, the defender remains “proud and grateful” to have shown such strength and to be where she is today.
And when we ask her to tell her story, she accepts.
” The cancer [est partout]. Being able to be that role model or that inspiration to people is important to me. »