(New York) It is almost midnight on Thursday when the interview with Tanya Bossy begins. “It’s okay, I’m a night owl!” “, she specifies.
Mike Bossy’s daughter is in full preparation. She, her sister, her mother and their loved ones took the road to New York on Friday for the Canadian-Islanders duel this Saturday.
The family is invited because it will be the evening Mike Bossy. The first 10,000 spectators will receive a figurine of the late number 22, but the importance of this evening goes far beyond a simple plastic bauble.
In addition to the Bossy family, the Lung Cancer Canada Foundation (CPC) was invited to the event. Mike Bossy succumbed to lung cancer last April, and the family has made it their mission to advance the cause in order to avoid other hasty departures like that of the former Islanders legend.
For the occasion, CPC will set up a kiosk at the UBS Arena to publicize its cause, and the profits from the evening’s 50/50 raffle will be entirely given to it. A remarkable initiative, since it is rather unusual for a team to associate itself in this way with a cause in a market that is not its own.
Prevention
Tanya Bossy still remembers that moment, somewhere in the fall of 2021. The Dr Kevin Jao had just announced to his father that he was suffering from lung cancer.
“I said to the doctor, ‘Operate on him, take out the tumor.’ He said, “Well no, it’s too late.” I had a lot of frustration, misunderstanding. How come we are not able to see this, in Canada, in 2021? »
It was too late, as is too often the case with this type of cancer. “The problem for the majority of patients who suffer from it is that we do not feel the small tumor that grows in the lung, recalls the Dr Jao, an oncologist at Sacré-Coeur Hospital, who followed Mike Bossy during his illness.
When symptoms appear, the disease is too advanced. Mike presented a year after experiencing pain, which had originally been misdiagnosed. And we came across cancer almost by accident.
The Dr Kevin Jao, oncologist at Sacred Heart Hospital
The problem is that, as we see for other cancers, there is no lung cancer detection program. However, according to CPC, 13% of cancers diagnosed are pulmonary, and they represent a quarter of cancer-related deaths.
“We do not have the equivalent of mammograms and colonoscopies”, recalls the Dr Jao. For a year and a half, however, Quebec has set up a detection pilot project to offer “Quebecers aged 55 to 74 at high risk of developing lung cancer a set of services”, we read on the government website.
Destigmatization
Prevention is therefore central to the mission of the Bossy family. But de-stigmatization is just as important.
Mike Bossy and Guy Lafleur passed away within a week of each other last year, and in either case, their smoking history was brought up by many.
“It was the time when the players smoked. We will never deny that cigarettes have a link with this cancer and we continue to remember that it is better to quit smoking, agrees the Dr Jao. But we want to eliminate the stigma of smokers. Lung cancer is the one that arouses the least sympathy. People say: they ran after it. However, we must not forget that there is a person behind it, a person who may have smoked at a time when it was more accepted than today.
Some of my patients, even if they haven’t smoked for 30 years, will always be labeled as smokers. Of course we want people to quit smoking. But the stigma has to stop, because guilt is hard.
The Dr Jao, oncologist at Sacred Heart Hospital
Tanya Bossy knows something about it. “I got asked, ‘How many packs did he smoke? How long did he smoke? Has he stopped?” I am for the promotion of healthy lifestyles, but this kind of question leads nowhere.
“Just a diagnosis, in itself, is physically and psychologically painful. In six months, my father had to mourn his relationships. Already that is heavy. If, on top of that, we suffer from the stigma associated with the responsibility of the person, it’s even more cruel, and it leads nowhere. »
It is therefore to pass on this message that Tanya Bossy and her family will go to where Mike Bossy wrote his legend, some forty years ago. For a decade, Bossy has thrilled the suburbs of New York, and this Saturday night, it will be an opportunity for supporters to thank him, through his loved ones.
“I often wonder what my father would have done if I had left. And I know that’s something he would have done. So it brings me closer to him. My father beamed. Everywhere he went, people were smiling. He’s gone, so it’s the responsibility of the people who are still here to keep people smiling. Me, it allows me to make peace with my frustrations. »