VANCOUVER — Vancouver Goldeneyes goalie Kristen Campbell has long idolized her mom. Like many hockey parents, Janet Campbell spent countless hours in freezing arenas, ferrying kids to and from seemingly endless practices, and cheering every play from behind the glass. As Kristen battled on the ice, Janet waged her own fight against multiple sclerosis. She was diagnosed with the neurological disease in 1999 when her daughter was about two years old. “It’s been pretty inspiring for me to grow up watching her navigate the disease and all the challenges that have come with it,” Kristen Campbell said. “She’s always put her family first, her kids first, and she’d show up to every single hockey practice for me, every single game, come to every tournament. She was just always there for me, even though she was going through a battle of her own. “She’s my best friend and my biggest role model in life.” Campbell, from Brandon, Man., is sharing her family’s story as part of A&W’s annual Burgers to Beat MS campaign. On Aug. 20, A&W will give $2 from every Teen Burger purchased across the country to MS Canada to help support people living with the disease and fund treatment research. “My mom’s just one of 90,000 Canadians living with MS, so it’s just a meaningful way for me to support a cause that’s obviously personal to me and personal to Canadians,” Campbell said. “I just want to be able to show up for all the individuals fighting with MS and help raise more awareness and find more treatments, and ultimately find that cure one day.” MS affects the central nervous system and can cause a range of symptoms, from vision loss to tingling or numbness to cognitive and mood changes. Most of Janet Campbell’s symptoms are invisible, her daughter said, including pain in her head, stiffness in one leg and sensitivity to heat and cold. “She’s been pretty fortunate, I guess you could say, to live a very fulfilling life and not be kind of held back by symptoms that would affect her life any differently,” Kristen Campbell said. “I think it surprises a lot of people, when they find out that she has MS just because she doesn’t show it. It affects every individual differently, every family differently, and we’ve been pretty fortunate to not see her deteriorate.” Campbell credits her mom with many of her attributes, including the work ethic that’s carried the 28-year-old netminder far in her hockey career. She was part of the Canadian team that captured gold at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing, and played for Toronto in the first-ever PWHL game before being named the league’s top goaltender for the 2024 season. Campbell moved west ahead of the 2025-26 campaign, splitting the Goldeneyes’ crease with Emerance Maschmeyer, and posting a 0.913 save percentage and a 2.17 goals-against average over 13 games. Playing the inaugural season for the league’s first expansion team was special, Campbell said. “You can’t really put into words the feeling that the fans brought, the energy in that building,” she said. ”Definitely an incredible first year. “We’re looking obviously to improve on last season and make the playoffs this year, but the No. 1 thing that sticks out for me in year one is just the passion of the fans and how they showed up for us in that inaugural year. And we can’t wait to keep developing our franchise and keep bringing out more fans.” After Vancouver missed the playoffs in May, Campbell took some time to herself. “The first month or two, I was able to spend a lot of time back home with my family and my friends, kind of decompress after the season, travel a little bit, not really do anything hockey related,” she said. The veteran goalie then got back into coaching, running three goalie camps, and returned to her own skating and training. Getting back into regular-season form is more of an “intentional” process both mentally and physically at this stage of her career, Campbell said. “(I still have) about three and a half months before the camp opens,” she said. “So definitely lots of time to kind of take a little bit of rest at the start and then slowly ramp it up as we get closer to the season. The coming season — set to begin in November — will look a bit different across the PWHL, with new teams in San Jose, Las Vegas, Detroit and Hamilton. It’s a much different league than the one Campbell first played in back in January 2024. “It’s incredible now to have 12 teams. I was lucky enough to play in that first ever PWHL game back in the year one, so it’s pretty crazy to see us come from where there was really no foundation set for the PWHL to where it is now going into year four,” she said. “We’re in NHL venues, selling out those rinks. It’s just a testament again to the fans and how they’ve been able to show up for our league and believe in us and believe in our products. So I’m excited to see it continue to grow.” This report by Gemma Karstens-Smith of The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 11, 2026.
