Despite a Peewee hockey coach’s deteriorating health, he says he wants his team to stay positive and keep pushing as they compete in a charity tournament.
After having a dialysis port installed last week, Stephen Gillis was back on the bench coaching his hockey team to victory in Sunday morning’s last game of the season. Despite his team’s efforts to find him a kidney donor, Gillis is set to start dialysis Tuesday. With that, he is still striving to be the best coach he can be and hopes to join his team on the ice again soon.
His players- Vancouver Minor Hockey Association’s Peewee A2 team, the Spirit-are the only B.C. team competing in the Chevrolet Good Deeds Cup—an annual hockey competition where the winner receives a donation to a charity of their choice. The Spirit are one of 10 semi-finalists. It is now up to the public to narrow it down to the last three finalists. People have from January 26 to February 9 to watch their favourite team's YouTube video. The three teams with the most views will become Good Deeds Cup finalists. The winner will be selected by a panel from Hockey Canada and Chevrolet.
If the Spirit wins, they will earn $100,000 towards the Kidney Foundation, a winner’s ceremony in their home town and a feature on broadcast television.
According to Hockey Canada, the Chevrolet Hockey program seeks to inspire young Canadians to be better players on and off the ice by promoting positive values learned through hockey and acting on them by performing good deeds in their communities.
Gillis says he not only coaches his team to be good hockey players, he coaches them to be good people as well.
"There's more to life. We're here to serve others. And we have responsibilities on and off the ice to be leaders in our community and set the example and set the tone," he said in an interview with CTV Vancouver.
When his team learned he was sick and needed new kidneys, they created a video explaining why their coach is important to them and asking that any willing kidney donors with an O-blood type get in contact.
The video went viral and brought forward many potential donors but no matches have been found so far. Gillis says he is thankful for his team’s efforts and hopes to find a match soon.
Gillis was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease about ten years ago. After symptoms became much worse, doctors revealed that he has a rare and incurable kidney disease as well. His kidneys are functioning at less than 10 per cent.
“The disease within the kidneys is so bad, that they're never going to get better,” he said.
Even though Gillis just had his dialysis catheter installed, the tone he is setting for his players is to stay positive in the face of uncertainty and to never give up.
“I'm hoping within the next six months maybe I could have my transplant,” he said.
